Babel Fish
by Blue Stem Cell
Summary: "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later a British school boy, suffering from constant migraines, destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered.
1. The Tower Of Babel

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

This is also NOT an X-men/Hitchhikers crossover…that would be silly. Or highly amusing.

_Edited on 14/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 1:** The Tower of Babel

_"The Babel Fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another. When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert sound waves into brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species you should happen to meet whilst traveling in space. Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." – _The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams.

It was the beginning of October and the bitterness of the month had started to set in early. Huge gray clouds hung in the dismal English sky, floating without care above a northern college building.

Tucked away inside of the building, hiding from the rain that threatened to pour from the sky, was a rather tall art student.

The boy straightened upwards and peered at the large canvas that stood in front of him. Frustrated, he wiped his arm across his brow and bowed his head ever so slightly. A dull ache had started to form behind his eyes and he knew too well from past experience that he was about to suffer from a migraine attack.

With a deep intake of breath he took a couple of steps backwards, trainer heels clicking loudly on the linoleum floor beneath him. He was completely alone in the art room, the other students had left early in the afternoon but he needed to stay and finish his latest creation.

Paint spattered, Leeland Williams ran his long fingers through his baby fine hair, watching a moment as it sucked in the light glaring at him from up above. Everything about him was pale; as if he had been grown in a cupboard. All accept for the army sprinkling of orange freckles that danced across his nose, cheeks and down the side of his neck. It made him feel like hot milk with a sprinkling of cinnamon. It sounded almost poetic and beautiful, but Leeland didn't like hot milk and or cinnamon.

He was tall, pale and stick thin. No one wanted to date someone who looked like the poster child for anorexia. Luckily for him his eyesight was near perfect, but the milky green colour would lead others to believe otherwise.

Shaking his head, he massaged the bridge of his nose, as if to smooth away the pain that was building inside of his head. He felt his pale hair sweep at his shoulders, pressed his lips together so the metal lip ring pushed painfully against his skin. It stretched until it almost split but he released his captive mouth just in time and sank down into a chair, head clutched in his hands.

"I 'ave got to get this finished." The seventeen year old was frustrated at himself for letting such a headache build up without doing a thing about it. It was because of the pain that he was failing his art class. Falling behind everyone else because he couldn't bare the sight of the light some days, or the urge to throw up what was no longer in his stomach. They were beginning to come at irregular intervals; sometimes lasting days and he could not do a thing about it, let alone paint like he so urgently wanted to.

However, the boy had a slight stubborn streak, just like everyone else, and was determined to finish his painting. After taking a sip of water from his bottle, he finally stood up to examine it.

The canvas was A1 sized and the image painted upon it had, strangely, come to him in a dream. Lots of people wrote about their dreams, tried to interpret them. Leeland did not see the point in that. Dreams are just the sub conscious mind unwinding, or so he thought. Sometimes when he looked at the canvas though, he saw something else. It made the skin on his arms pimple and the hair at the back of his neck would stand to sudden attention.

In the corner of blinding white room there was a child cowering, one arm protecting his face with the other is spread out to defend himself. What charged at him was a great mass of shadow like substance, seeping outward from the doorway. The shadows wanted to suffocate the child, press him down into the ground. But there was hope in the picture. At the far end of the room was a distant figure, rising taller than the child, but not in an intimidating way. The hue around the unknown was a vibrant green and he reached for the terrified boy, almost willing him away from the enveloping darkness.

When his teacher had questioned his inspiration for such apiece, Leeland could not give an answer. He had simply smiled in his own shy little way and muttered something about an over active imagination. The dream had awoken him screaming, his head pounding but the image never left. He had to will it into something else to make him feel as if it was no longer apart of him.

If there was truth behind the painting, or even an interpretation, then he was not sure he wanted to know the answer. He had a feeling that he would not like it.

After his little break of sitting and staring, the boy stood back up to carry on with his work. The pain in his head however made him wobble almost drunkenly and he collapsed breathlessly into a nearby chair. Putting his head back into his hands he groaned in annoyance and forced the tears back.

Of course he was on strong medication for the migraines. He had various CAT scans and examinations to see if there was anything causing such pain. There were no abnormalities however, and he supposed it was just the way he was.

There was the soft sound of shoes somewhere in the distance and Leeland forced himself together, to lift his head and pretended that everything was ok. The person he saw made him smile, the pain subsiding for just a little while.

"Whoa, mate. Yah don't look so good?" The boy's hair laid in thick black dreadlocks that fell around his shoulders, donned in beads and various coloured threads worked into the mattered hair. His dark blue eye's where ever so slightly slanted, but that was about the only thing that showed that he was half Korean.

"Hey Brian, I'm fine. Just a migraine." Leeland smiled the best he could but did wince at the same time. This forced him to put his head back into his hands and fiddle with his eyebrow piercings'. The pieces of metal that inhabited his left eyebrow usually cooled his head. However, this time they were warm to the touch and he contemplated on taking them out.

Brian sighed and dropped his bag next to where Leeland was stationed and scratched at the dark stubble of his face. The two boys had been the best of friends for as long as they could remember, so of course he knew straight off hand that his friend was lying to him.

"Clearly yah not. Ah thought that doctor gave yah some stronger tablets?" He sounded ever so slightly irritated, but not directly at Leeland. Brian had always hated seeing his friend in pain, of that Leeland knew. At how these 'wondrous miracle tablets and potions weren't doing a blind bit of difference.'

Leeland just shook his head and looked up, but he regretted doing so as the harsh lights made him gulp and he held back the feeling of suddenly wanting to vomit.

"…'E did but they're just not working very well. Doctor said ah'll either grow out of them or ah won't." Though Leeland had prayed for the headaches to subside with age, but it seemed since the age of twelve that they were only getting worse. Besides, Leeland was very skeptical of the idea of a God to pray too. When he was ten he had prayed for his sick rat to get better, it died the following day. No, the boy did not trust God one little but.

"Well shit." Said Brain, dumping himself in the seat next to Leeland and it made the blonde grin, holding back laughter. That was just the way Brian was. He started to pull his friends notebook towards himself and a copy of Art History notes. He had missed lessons due to his migraines and had a lot of work to catch up with but not a whole lot of time to do it in.

"What are yah doing?" Leeland asked but Brian put up a hand and the blonde fell silent.

"Ah'll write up these notes for yah, an you can go an' get a cup of tea." He had started writing straight away, despite whether Leeland wanted him too or not. But this only made Leeland smile. He could have sat there and argued with Brian, told him that he didn't need someone else to do the work for him. The truth though was that he did need help, he was just too quiet to ask for it. Proud would not have been the right word.

"Sure thing, ah'll buy yah a Mars bar."

Brian took that as thanks and smirked down into the book, as he knew all too well that Leeland would not directly thank him. Being friends as long as they had been, they were in tune, almost, to each other's quirks and whims. Leeland had said thank you in the only way he knew he could with Brain; the promise of sweet chocolaty goodness. Something that Leeland could not indulge in.

He felt like a walking wreck. The migraines were one thing but he had been diagnosed with diabetes as a toddler. Illness made life hard, but complaining about it made it harder.

It was not that he was forbidden from chocolate, he just did not trust himself to only eat one little bar. He was the kind of boy that could devour a whole loaf of bread and jam in one sitting and then wonder why he felt so terrible after.

The Art department building was awfully quiet, unlike its atmosphere in the daytime. Filled with noisy art students, each wanting to leave their mark upon the world. Now though, it was silent and the old building had a dark eeriness about it. To keep himself company on the way to the vending machines, Leeland whistled, his eye's scanning quickly here and there at the dark shadows hiding in the corners. Of course he was not afraid of the dark, just what he could not see inside it. It made his fear seem a little more rational when sleeping with the lamp on. No seventeen year old should be sleeping with that light on, at least that was what Leeland thought.

The headache made him remember what he was doing when a sharp jolt across his eyes made him halt in his tracks. A low whistling pooled into his ears making him hiss ever so slightly, scrunching his eyes up tight. Sometime the migraines would be so bad that he would loose his hearing. At first it had panicked him, but now it was just part of the package.

Once back up in the safety of his classroom, he dangled the mars bar down in front of Brian, his friend taking it up with a nod of thanks as he wrote frantically. Peering over his notebook he smiled at Brian's such neat handwriting. His own was a piece of modern art in itself. His teachers would say otherwise and compare it to that of chicken scratch that had produced offspring with a child's doodle of mummy and daddy. No, Leeland liked the first description better.

"Thanks. Yah really learn about some fucked up shit. Who the hell concretes an 'ole house an' then calls it art? Or un makes a bed. Ah do that every morning; Ah'm not getting paid for that shit." Brian simply could not understand the modern art world. Then again he supposed he wouldn't have to understand if he himself was being paid that much for something he did every day.

However, Leeland was away with the fairies, or so it seemed. He had stared off into the distance at his painting, musing on it for a while. The piece gave Brain the shudders and it was not often a piece of artwork made him want to physically turn it the other way.

"Ah will never understand the art world." He simply said and to some extent Leeland agreed with him.

"Oh ah meant to tell you. That tiny lass in mah English class, Stef, has the biggest crush on yah." Brian said it with a casual whim, as if it was as natural as the girl saying hi to him through his friend.

Leeland sucked up his tea the wrong way and began to cough, spluttering milky substance across the floor at the same time. He looked upwards quickly and gave Brain the dirtiest look he could muster, setting the plastic up down on the side.

"Don't joke about stuff like that. She's a nice girl." The blonde sounded muttered in irritation, but he smoothed the annoyance out his face with a little shake of his head.

"Ah'm not jokin'. She really does like yah, wants me to give 'er your number." Brian grinned but the smile slowly faded from his face and he arched a thick black eyebrow at the boy. Leeland had gone suddenly quiet, staring at his blue high-tops as if they where the answers to everything he needed in life. There was such concentration on his face that Brian turned himself to face his friend, setting the pen down on the paper.

"What's wrong now?" Brian held the whine out of his voice but it took some doing. He had been trying to find his best friend a girl for as long as girls had been interesting and not icky. Though where as Brian flourished like young boys did, Leeland held himself back and was very distant from the other sex. In Brian's terms, Leeland was hopeless.

"It…It's nothing. She really is nice." Stef Scurr was tiny, with a pretty crop of brown hair and large chocolate doe eye's. She almost looked like a little doll that one would sit up with their expensive china. To top it off, she was friendly and mature. A little too good to be true. It was hard to find a girl like that and Brian had half a mind to snatch her up for himself. But he wanted to give Leeland a chance and besides, he'd be a terrible best friend if he did that.

"But?" Brian urged, almost on the edge of his seat. A part of him could feel what was coming and the rest of him supposed he knew all along. However, he needed to hear it from Leeland's own mouth.

The blonde turned towards his friend, looking at him for what felt like the first time. He took in the features of his face and the so serious look of need that was spread out across his eyes. It made Leeland want to smile and lock away all of his secrets from his friend and never share them again. He turned back to look at his painting, tilting his head to the side too see if he could see that in a new light too.

"You're doing it again." Leeland could almost hear the frown in Brian's voice but he had honestly zoned out. There was a piece of the painting that he wanted to fix. The stroke was not right with the cowering figures hair. Leeland's father quite frequently compared his son's attention span to a small fly. Brian would disagree saying that a fly would stick around longer.

"Hmm." He peered up the clock on the wall and frowned. "Seven already? Shit, Ah'm done for the day." Leeland got to his feet and swung his jacket on, zipped it up before collecting his various bits and pieces. With his bag swung on his back and his paintbrushes wrapped in cling film he turned to Brian who was still staring at him. "What?" The six-footer asked, oblivious to what Brian was thinking.

"Nothing Leeland. Nothing at all." Brian shook his head and smiled despite himself. He looked down at the mars bar in his hands and raised it too his mouth, prepared to take a bite of it. The chance never came though as a pale hand shot out and grabbed up the chocolate bar and then preceded to run out of the room, giggling like a little boy. That in it's self was peculiar, as Mars Bars did not giggle.

"Leeland! Yah little shit!" Brian laughed and turned to head out of the room, braking into a run as he did so. He grabbed up his bag, swung it on his back before spotting his target mere meters away. "Oi! Give me back my mars bar yah sorry excuse for a barge poll!"

"A barge poll?" Leeland blinked, but was not prepared for Brian's sudden leap that caught him of guard. He swung from his neck like a small child before hoisting himself upward, clambering onto his back to retrieve his stolen food. However, Brian was on the rather short side and so all Leeland had to do was stoop and hold the chocolate out at arms length. That way, all his friend could do was try and scramble over him or choke him. Whichever one came first.

Brian loved to rough house and play fight; after all, he had three little brothers, all under the age of eight. In his haste to grab his chocolate bar, he grabbed Leeland's lengthened hair and pulled him down on top of him. The blonde was still laughing hard, tears clutching to his eyelashes before the laughter took on a different form. He bowed his head as it turned into hysterical silent giggle, the type that made you think you couldn't breathe and that you were going to die with giant grin on your face.

The smaller figure had rolled his eyes and pushed Leeland away so it did not appear he was straddling his hips. "Move off." He took his chocolate rather hastily when it slipped from Leeland's loose hand and he scrambled to his feet, holding his prize victoriously up above his head. With a finger, he pointed at Leeland mockingly.

"You my good friend are an epic failure." He grinned down at the giggling mass that was now clutching at his aching sides. With a roll of his eye's, Brian spread out his fingers and held his hand out for his closest friend. However, Leeland sat up breathlessly with his pale hair falling in front of his equally pale eyes. With only his smile showing and his army of freckles, it made Brian stare for a moment.

Sometimes when he looked at his quiet tall friend,when he did not think he was looking, he would scare Brian. It was not fear that would make him turn away, only the knowing. The blonde would sit for hours staring off at walls or clocks, his mind racing underneath his pale flesh. Brian had wondered why nothing had ever fallen out; there was certainly not enough room for any more thinking. That was what his friend was like, though; a child who would become sad and disinterested if the topic of subject was boring or a little too much. He supposed that was what happened in the classroom…he supposed.

That smile turned wide, brace straightened teeth shone in the bright light of the hallway. Brian gulped but before he could retrieve his hand, Leeland had grabbed it and locked onto his wrist, pulling him back down to the floor. The chocolate bar had flung up out of Brian's opposite hand and skidded helplessly down the corridor and landed with a soft thud.

"Not cool, mate." Brian muttered with his face in the floor; but Leeland just giggled again with his back pushed up against the wall. He let out a long breath and blew upwards, forcing his hair to stand to attention. Pushing it back from his eyes and over his head he turned towards Brian, letting his arms rest across his knees.

"Ah believe that means you fail." Said the boy in a corrective manner and put his hands behind his head. The migraine slowly crept forward again, the rough housing had distracted it for all of five minutes but now it demanded attention again and even harder. Leeland thought that if it had a persona, it would a three year old having a tantrum in his mind, banging its little fist and head on the floor until it was bloody.

Brian propped himself up on his elbows and smirked. "Fair enough, just give me the dam Mars." He grinned with a shake of his head, watching as Leeland got to his feet and walked down the hallway, scooping up the chocolate. Taking one last look at Brian he flung it as hard as he could and gave a satisfied smile as it hit its target firmly in the face.

"Ow!" Brian complained from the far end of the hallway but Leeland had become distracted again. The sound of heels clicked on the linoleum floor and a tiny girl walked around the corner. She was not really a girl, more of a woman but her size fooled people into believing that she could not care for herself. Leeland knew she could but watched for a moment as she struggled with a pile of folders and textbooks.

With a shake of his head he walked up to her and took away some of that weight, smiling sheepishly down at her. It took her a moment to realise that someone had taken some of her things but she smiled brightly up at Leeland, her little button nose scrunching up as she did so.

"Hi Leeland!" She sounded excited, happy and calm all at the same time. It was a skill, or so Leeland thought.

"Hey Stef. What are yah doing round 'ere." The girl was taking a multitude of A-levels which meant she was in a completely opposite building at the front of the campus. She had no real reason to come all the way to the art building that was situated at the back of the college. Leeland believed it was so the strange art students could not infect the academic ones. Brian simply told him it was paranoia.

"Oh, Brian said you where on your own up here. I just got finished with history and thought I'd keep you company."

Leeland turned back to Brian and rolled his eyes at him. The black haired youth only grinned and came up level with Stef, turning to her with a secret smile. "Evening Stefanie." There was a subtle hint of flirtation in his voice and it made the girl scowl but she turned to him. "Go away Sier." She said, her tone cool as she looked back at Leeland.

Brian blinked for almost a second but let it go, the smile still on his face. "Ah'll see you outside." He grinned at Leeland but the blonde could not quite find the words to make his friend stay. He did not want to seem rude but at the same time he wanted Brian with him to fix what he had done. That bastard knew, he had to know Leeland's little secret and it only made him feel sick that he would do something like this. Once he got outside, he would be having words.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind her ears and peered up at Leeland, staring up into his milky looking eyes. Her friends had warned her away from the six footer, he was strange, too quiet and his eye's…they would simply suck you in and never let you go. However, the girl was stubborn and what she could not have, she wanted.

They began to walk down the hallway after Brian-whose short legs had carried him a great distance away. Leeland mused that he must have run. "No. Ah was jus' finishing for t'day. I'm sort of a little behind." He admitted and the girl nodded her head. "Brian had said you weren't very well, that's what you've stopped coming to Con Fab."

Truth be told, Leeland hated Con Fab. There were always too many people in the club and he hated the way the gang of students would segregate themselves. It was not that he thought himself above the club, far the opposite. He loved being around happy people, it made him feel the same but it was hard to be happy when ones brain wanted to seep out of his ears.

"Hmm. Migraines are getting bad again. They said if ah get my course work in by next Friday then ah can stay on the course but…I kind of feel like ah'm cheating a little, yah know?" He smiled to himself but Stef shook her head with a frown. "You're not cheating hun. If you were skipping class for the hell of it, then you would be cheating, but you're not." Leeland's cheeks had pinked slightly when she called him 'hun'. She would say it too everyone but when she said it too Leeland, he could hear her say it a different way. Like the word was just for him and made only by her. It felt wrong.

"Leeland…" She stopped and took a hold of his arm gently between her fingers, almost caressing the jacket as if she wished it were his skin. The boy stopped and looked down at the tiny girl, pressing his pierced lips together. "You know that I like you, don't you." She was so bold when she said it Leeland blinked at her a few times before the notion had even begun to set in.

"Oh." He finally found his voice but found it hard to look at her.

"And, I've been wondering what you would say if I asked you out…" She let her words trail away with her and Leeland found some form of courage to look at her. She did not shy away, only peered up at him with those wide chocolate eyes, strands of her cropped hair coming away from her ears in small wisps.

"Stef..." He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment and he felt her hand upon him tighten ever so slightly before he looked down at her. "Brian should 'ave told you, ah know 'e knows." He almost frowned but kept a soft apologetic smile upon his face. She waited for him to speak, until he could find the right words. However, she looked so eager, her eye's so full of life that it almost hurt too say and shouldn't have.

"Stef I'm just not…I guess. I'm just not into gir-Oww." He stopped, pain suddenly shooting into head and he swayed on the spot. A sudden feeling of cold ran from the top of his head, right down to the soles of his feat. It forced him to reach out with his free hand to balance on the girls shoulder.

"Leeland? Lee are you ok?" Concern fed her voice but the pain inside the boy's head was too much. Too much to even give a response to girl who only wanted to hear yes.

Blue, red and green sparkles fluttered in front of his eyes and he stared at the opposite wall of white. The sudden contrast was too much for his poor head though and he let the piles of books slip from his arms as he collapsed down onto the floor below. Stomach convulsing, he fell onto all fours, almost dragging the girl with him before he heaved. A rush of hot sour vomit cradled his mouth and his spat it out onto the floor.

"Brian! BRIAN!" With strands of sweet saliva hanging from his mouth, Leeland could hear the girl shouting for his friend, screaming his name as the concern soon turned into fear. Her voice faded in and out though, a high pitched whistling scream occupied his ears and caused him to shout out in pain. "Stop it…Stop it!" Tears that had clung to his eyes before streaked his face as he pulled his head into his hands, pressing the palms of his hands across his ears.

The girl screamed somewhere in the distance, but that only caused a sharp pain to race across the front of his eye's, almost attacking his poor ear drums which felt as if they would burst at any given second.

"Please…" He begged, his voice seemed distant though, as if he were at the opposite end of the room, away from his body that he could not quite reach. "Stop it…Just stop it. Shut up! SHUT UP!" He screamed for that voice to be quiet but it only became louder and the pain was suddenly sharp, as if his head would cave in. He pulled his hands from his ears and blinked the tears back at the sight of blood that had pooled across his palms and fingers. It trickled down his elbow, straining his jacket and Stef's books in front of him.

The sight of blood made him sway for a moment before he sat bolt upright, smacking his already pain filled head hard against the wall. A crack exploded from behind him and it suddenly felt as if his brain would slide out of the back of him.

"Not now. Oh God Leeland not now!" He knew that voice, Brian's voice. But he could no longer move his body, he sat stiff against the wall as blood seeped from either side of him. The cold sweep of his body had taken an unexpected turn, his stomach spread out with heat that ran up his body. He could feel it collide into his brain with a force that caused him to scream once again. He felt arms suddenly on him, someone was pulling him into their lap, pushing his blood stained hair back from his head.

All at once the pain subsided and he lay motionless in Brian's arms as the boy screamed at the girl to get help. Brian was terrified, fear was lodged so far inside of him that Leeland thought he would choke on it. That in its self made him roll his pale eye's up towards Brian's, peering at him silently as words caught in his throat. Brian was talking to him, tears staining his cheeks and they made him look like a boy of twelve. He was apologising to him but Leeland could not understand why, neither could he understand Brian's overwhelming look of guilt.

Leeland wanted to reach out and touch his friend, to tell him that everything would be fine but he wanted to sleep. Oh how he wanted to sleep.

xxx

It was dark, his breathing steady. The boy, who was not a fan of the dark to begin with, felt his hear thud harder and harder against his chest. The headache was a memory, a soft nostalgic feeling of being refreshed set into him. He frowned though, his right wrist suddenly laced with pain and he opened his eyes.

The light was soft, dull almost and he felt his hair being pushed from his eyes by hands he did not recognise. A soft murmur came to his ears but the blonde frowned. It was a voice, which he was sure of but it beeped inside his head, a string of words formed to make a noise like an ever-running answering machine. Where had the words gone?

Suddenly he sat bolt up right, the sound of soft beeps were crisp and clear and he threw his hands up, clutching at his head. A scream tried to erupt from his throat but his mouth felt as dry as parchment, his tongue as shriveled as a mummy's. So instead he coughed, coughed so hard he felt the phlegm race up his gullet and seeped out of his mouth in a hard rush of vomit bile.

The doctor in the room was startled terribly when the teenager he was treating suddenly awoke and shot up. He had to quickly drop his notes, hold onto the boys arm and call over his shoulder to the open door for a nurse. However, Leeland struggled in the man's grasp, screaming at him for no real reason than that he could. Throat too dry, arms and legs aching and his head, oh how his head ached now that remembered what he had done to it.

"Leeland, Leeland you have to calm down! You're safe now, you're ok." The doctor gritted his teeth and grabbed both of the boy's skinny wrists holding them away from his body so he would not suddenly jerk them and hurt himself. An entourage of nurses and orderlies came bustling into the room, each one of them trying to grab a hold of the boy, to silence his screams with soft hushing.

Still beside himself, Leeland did not quite feel the sudden sharp pain at the top of his shoulder. Only when the soft tranquilizers hit him did he understand what had just happened and he raised hurt eyes to each and every one of them. Then suddenly he was tired, so very tired and he let them push him back down onto the bed, to smooth his long pale hair from his eyes.

When he awoke, he was woozy and light headed but the pain behind his eyes had subdued some hours before and he was able to sit up without emptying his already starving insides. Now in the soft darkness of the room, he realised that the pain in his wrist had been due to a drip feed. He looked up and around the small hospital room, and pulled the thin blankets up towards his chin. He was not scared of the dark, or of the shadows that crept from the corners of the room. No he was not.

Pressing his lips together he was more than relieved to feel the presence of luke warm metal that was still firmly attached to his flesh. It was a comfort and the dark demon inside of his head shouted at him for his fear: _You are almost eighteen years old. Such a child! No wonder that girl screamed in terror at you. Freak!_

With a scowl he threw the bed sheets back and peered down at his legs. They were laid straight out, something he rarely did. It ached if he tried to stretch so far, used to curling up in the foetal position. When he attempted to move his legs though, pins and needles shot from the tip of his toes right up to his thighs. He sucked on his piercing and thought of _the bride_, sat in the back of the _pussy wagon_ attempting to wiggle her big toe.

Though his recovery was not so time consuming, it did take him a couple of minutes to assure his legs that they really were attached to his body. Once on the floor he wobbled, the tube in his arm snagged at his wrist and he pulled at it ever so slightly. It did not budge straight away, having to negotiate it out of his arm. Hissing, he threw the dammed thing on the bed and rubbed at his now bruised limb before trying to walk to the door.

Someone had dressed him in white boxers and black top that came to his thighs. He felt exposed, his cheeks burning slightly as he clutched at the loose material, subconsciously pulling it down ever so slightly. It made him look nervous, twitchy. He padded bare footed over to the door and rested his hand on the handle. It did not budge. Arching his eyebrow, the boy tried again but still it did not budge. He was trapped inside the dark room, unaware of what was going on outside, or of what was going to happen to him.

"Hello?" He called through the door. "HELLO!" He called a little louder when nothing was heard apart from a patter of footsteps. A whimper escaped his dry throat, and he found himself clutching the door handle, pulling at it as strands of pale hair clouded his vision.

When he had almost given up hope he heard the sound of raised voices from behind the door. At least he presumed they had been voices. A sensation had run through him, the beeps fluttered in and out of his mind and formed words inside of his mind. He read those words in his mind, his hands shaking more so as he did.

"I'm sorry but the hospital is not at liberty to discuss the patient. We are under strict orders from his father-"

"I don't mean to sound rude nor presumptuous but I'll cut straight to the point. That patient, a child I may remind you, is the first recoded mutant in a year and you have him locked away like a criminal." He listened to those words, the sharp cool voice of the woman and he wondered what she looked like. Then it had struck him what she had said. _First recorded mutant_. But he was not a mutant. There were more endangered tigers than there were mutants now and he scowled down at the floor, at his toes.

"Hey!" He called. "Can anyone 'ear me? HEY!" He tried the door again, rattled it and then pressed his ear back against it.

"Oh for heavens sakes." The woman sighed, her voice like ice against his mind and it made him frown, stumble away from the door. He misjudged his steps and stumbled, landing painfully on his behind. His hair fluttered down into his eyes as he rubbed at his poor hip, watching as the door handle rattled.

"Open the door." The woman said to someone who must have looked like a deer in the throw of oncoming headlights. Her voice held sharpness but underneath was a tone of boredom, as if she could have opened the door herself. Leeland did not doubt that she could, she sounded terrifying and he resisted the silly urge to place his hands over his ears.

"Ms Frost, hospital policy states that in the case of a minor-"

"A minor?" Ms Frost cut in through the door. "A minor who is the first recorded mutant since M-day. A minor who has unstable ability's-

"Miss, Please-

"-_And_ a minor who put a hole through the roof of his school nearly injuring two other children."

Leeland stopped breathing. It must have been mere seconds but it felt as if hours had dragged by. What had he done and whom had he hurt while he himself laid there in best friends lap, pooling blood out onto the floor and over the girls now tarnished schoolbooks. He felt his lips quiver, his eye's scrunched up tight and he forced his hands back over his head, blocking out the noise. He did not want to hear anymore.

"It's lucky for your hospital that the explosion was covered up so quickly by _our _people. Do you know how many other organizations want their hands on this child? Dead or alive? Locking him in a psychiatric ward is not going solve any of his father's problems. Now I will ask you one more time to open this door."

Leeland had, of course, been listening and what terrified him most was not that people wanted him dead or alive but that his father had put him somewhere, locked him away. As far as he knew he had done nothing wrong and all talks about being a mutant had him left breathless for words.

He held his breath, still sat on the floor with his hands over his ears. For a moment there was silence and he pictured the orderly trying to stare down the persistent woman. But after what felt like hours creep by there was finally a clatter of keys against the door and the handle turned.

It was pushed open; light flooded the dark little room and engulfed the boy on the floor. He looked upwards and met cold blue eyes. Her pale blonde hair fell around her face, framing it. It was brushed back from her forehead, her skin as almost as white as his own. Though unlike Leeland, she had bone structure. High cheek

bones with a pointed face made him think of aristocrats or those who always had money running through their veins. She wore a white blouse and jacket, her trousers where cream, which white high-heeled boots. Either she looked ready for the catwalk or was masquerading as a vanilla ice cream.

"Leeland?" She asked and the boy nodded, suddenly remembering that he was rather unceremoniously dumped on the floor. He got to his feet and was at least several inches taller than her, but he had the characteristic stoop of taller people. As if apologising for his height.

"Leeland…" The woman began, staring at him a moment whilst an unrecognisable emotion shone in her eyes. "My name is Emma Frost." She began, finally finding her voice. "-A mutant from the X-"

"Ah know who you are." Leeland said, urging the smirk out of his smile. "An' ah know what a mutant is an' who the X-men are." Did she think he didn't watch the news, read the paper. Heck, he went to high school with a handful of mutants before they lost their powers.

"What ah don't know is where the 'ell I am or where my Dad is?" He seemed to have gained a sudden amount of courage as he looked down at this smaller woman in front of him who peered up with her model esque face and arched a very slim blonde eyebrow at him.

What Emma Frost had noticed about the boy first was just that. He was a boy, a child with a baby featured face that was not quite ready to grow up into the man that he would soon have to become. She herself had students younger than him who could be served in bars without any question of ID, but not Leeland.

"Well I'm glad we have the introduction part over." She sniffed. "Your father placed in you in this _fine _establishment after discovering your mutation and that it was you who made it so over hundred students now cannot use their art building. Not a great loss." It seemed she would yawn at any minute, but somehow she was able to keep it back and kept her gaze with the boy.

"My…Dad wouldn't do that. He-he wouldn't." It didn't seem plausible, something his father would have strongly objected to. Jonathon Williams was an overprotective parent, a man who always needed Leeland to phone to tell him where he was. A man who would have rather had his child sit inside on a computer than play outside like other children in the sun. It was very unlike Jonathon Williams.

"Leeland you have a choice. You either stay here or wait for others to approach you, others who will not have you best interests at heart. Or you come with us." It was at this point that Leeland noticed the sandy haired man stood behind Emma a little. He wore a dark suit, it slimmed down his obvious muscular build but he would know those ruby quartz glasses anywhere.

"Come with the X-men or face what?" He asked, licking out over his lip, just to make sure his piercing was still there, a part of him he'd come to know for years. Emma looked at him with those sky blue eyes, her sculptured face and something sad passed across those model features.

"Not everybody will be this kind Leeland. Not everyone will give you a choice." Something almost mother like rose up inside of her and she wanted to brush the boy's hair from his eyes, tuck it behind his ears so he could see clearly. Then she remembered that, according to her teammates, she had the motherly instinct of a tea pot.

"My girls can only hold them off for so long and so far, other people are unaware of your mutation. It's lucky that no one can get into that head of yours Lee…" She reached up with a slender hand and poked him gently on his forehead, smirking at him ever so slightly.

"Ok." The boy nodded, gently brushing fingers over the spot she had touched, frowning ever so slightly.

"Good. You might want to change first." She said turning to leave the room and he felt sudden heat upon his cheeks. After all, he was only stood in boxers and a t-shirt he couldn't hold down very far. The man with the ruby glasses smiled at him and held out a small back pack that he had not noticed before, and Leeland breathed a sigh of relief. At least he would not be leaving in only his underwear.

"Thanks… Mr. Summers." He said quietly as he started to unzip the bag, pulling out a black t-shirt, jacket, jeans and a pair of white high top trainers. Of course he knew who Cyclops was, the co leader of the X-men, the one who always gave the interviews. Ever since Xavier vanished at any rate.

"Call me Scott." Said the man but Leeland shook his head as he started to pull on the clothes. "Dad says it's rude to call adults by their first name." Just because his father had, supposedly, placed him a locked room after discovering what he was, did not mean he was going to abandon everything the man had taught him.

Scott watched the boy for a few moments after this and a smile past his lips as he nodded.

"Ms Frost. We can't let either you or your colleague take the boy from the premises." Emma Frost was now stood in front of a short man with a lot of graying hair. He wore a full-length lab coat and Leeland realised it was the man who had pinned him to the bed, calling for people to sedate him.

"Doctor Mark is it? As his father is currently missing and Leeland is not yet eighteen, it means his care falls into the hands of the Xavier institute." She never raised her tone, it still radiated boredom or perhaps it was just the way her soft sharp voice flowed.

"Is that true?" Leeland asked Scott who nodded; watching as the boy zipped the bag back up, placing it around his now jacketed shoulders. Maybe he just needed something to hold onto, running his fingers up and down the fabric of the grey straps.

"There was very little set up for mutant children who were either abandoned or abused. We set up a program for mutant children at the school meaning by law your father can't keep you here." It also meant his father had relinquished all parental rights over Leeland, but Scott did not think the boy was quite ready to hear that.

"There is also no real reason for a perfectly healthy boy to be locked away like some drooling imbecile. Unless you want him to put a hole where your new wing is supposed to be, I suggest you call off your guard dogs and let us leave." Two orderlies the size of pro armature wrestlers were stood in front of the ward doors, and Leeland wondered whether they would simply pick Ms. Frost up and carry her away.

"I didn't really put a hole in the roof, did I?" Leeland asked Scott quietly but all the X-man could do was smile at him. That was the only answer Leeland needed and he bowed his head slightly.

"Now either have them move, or will I have to persuade them?" And Leeland watched as the men kept their ground, hands clenched in front of their stomachs as they stared down at the much smaller woman. However, Leeland did not think for one moment that Emma Frost would be the kind of woman to stand down, or not get her own way. He pictured her as a three year old holding her breath until her parents gave in.

"Emma." He heard Mr. Summers sigh and he wondered how they had planned to take him away from the hospital. Surely they would not have to fight their way out because if that were the case, he'd be staying. Leeland was not much of a fighter, he knew from past experience he would be down on the floor in zero seconds flat, holding a nosebleed. Perhaps if they knew that he was a terrible fighter, then they would not take him with them. After all, isn't that what the x-men did?

"Scott darling, your kind persuasive methods haven't worked. Watch and learn child." She looked over her shoulder to Leeland, a smile creeping into the corners of her mouth. He was getting rather tired of being called a child or "the boy."

But he watched like she had asked, and could not help but stare with wide eyes as Emma's skin and hair suddenly took on a rather different appearance. She was diamond coated, as if she had been sculpted from expensive rock and taught to breathe. It was a strange illusion, if that was what it was. If it was not, then it simply made his head hurt and he wished to step forward, brush his fingers over her skin to see what it would feel like.

The White Queen turned her attention to the doctor, various nurses and orderlies and smiled at them. "Step back please." She said to them and they did as she asked, stepping back so both Leeland and Scott would have room to move down the small corridor without being held back. Then she let her gaze fall upon the two door guards and without a word they stepped forward, even opening the doors for Emma.

"Emma we agreed we wouldn't do it like this." Scott neither sounded amused nor impressed, just plain irritated. However, Leeland had to agree with Emma. If this was the only way of getting them out of the building, then what harm could it do?

"Oh Darling please." Emma waved her hand, dismissing anything Scott would have liked to have said or shouted at her. They both walked on after Emma, but Leeland found himself stopping in front of one of the overlays and waving in front of his eyes.

"Leeland." Emma called and the boy tore his eyes away from the almost frozen people. "Are they gonna to be all right?" He asked once he had caught up with Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers, his northern accent sounding think against their American voices. "They'll be fine once we leave this charming little place and then we can get down to the real business."

"Real Business?" Leeland asked as he watched Emma, urging his poor aching legs to move just that little bit more through the hospital. It seemed that no one noticed they were there. As if they could just see them from the corner of their eye's but did not truly want to believe their presence.

"Yes." Said Emma. "We haven't a clue what your mutation is."

**TBC ~**


	2. Do Androids Dream?

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note incase you come across anything spelt wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 15/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 2:** Do Androids Dream?

The gleaming black Mercedes that greeted them at the front of the hospital fairly sparkled in the dull English weather. Leeland glanced at the chrome plated "X" placed at the front of the bonnet and cocked his head ever so slightly to the side. If that was not rubbing in who you were in someone's face, then he didn't know what it would take. Looking upwards he saw gray clouds forming over the building and he knew that rain would start to fall soon. When he looked back down to the car, his pale eyes met Miss Frosts sky blue ones. The eyes were like a cold winter's day, pierced by ice but somehow you knew the sun was just about to peek over the horizon. Inside he snorted; he didn't think there was any real sun inside her eyes. They stared at each across the car bonnet and Leeland wondered if she had stood there as not to crane her neck to peer up at him. He was the first to back down, casting his gaze away to the side. Instead of going for the car door he looked over his shoulder at the barred hospital windows behind him.

The question of his father kept repeating through his head on a never-ending cycle. Why would he put him in such a place when he knew that there were people like the X-men that could help him? He knew his father did not quite have the highest view on mutants and that thought made ice pool inside his stomach, spreading out deep into his chest.

Could the X-men really help him really? Leeland knew nothing about mutants, other than that most people were glad that many of them had lost their powers. After all, don't people fear what they want to be the most? To fly, to shoot laser beams from your eyes. Oh people liked to fear these things as well. However, Leeland wondered if people would be afraid of ghosts if everyone could see and talk to them.

Emma watched the boy as he stared off into space and tried once more to see if she could enter his mind. Asking permission would have probably made it run a little smoother but she knew on a whim that it was not the child himself restricting her entry. Observing Leeland made her tilt her head to the side, watching him wrap his arms protectively around himself. It was almost as if he wished to keep it all inside. Emma looked away, there was more to the child and it didn't take a psychic to figure that out.

"So where are we going?" Leeland finally asked as he slipped into the back of the car, licking out over the metal of his lip ring. Emma peered around at him from the passenger's seat as they pulled out of the hospital car park. He held her gaze this time yet she did not falter and simply smiled at him. "Why the institute of course."

"America? Ah actually thought that place 'ad shut down." He mumbled the last bit as he tore his eyes from hers and watched the passing street out of the car window. Leeland had suspected that because there were so few mutants left, why keep open a school for them? That, to him, seemed a little redundant.

"Do you honestly think that out of all the mutants left on the planet, a hand full of them would not be children? We're not superhero's anymore Leeland, we're simply trying to survive. To not be extinct in the next twenty years if we can help it." Emma told him but she sounded a little despondent, if not sulky. Though sulky was not quite a word used to describe such a woman as Emma Frost, surely.

"Emma…" Scott shook his head ever so slightly, watching Leeland from the re view mirror. "We have roughly thirty students still at the school. Many of them don't have homes to go to anymore, so we felt that it was within their best interest to keep the school open." Leeland had not thought about that. He sat there for a few moments in silence and let his fingers slip over the seat belt. It felt clean and new, like the car had been steam washed or newly unwrapped. It made him smile slightly and he looked back up.

Emma had turned back around and was facing the front window again. "Yah said there would be others who'd come after me. What makes yah think bein' with you will make it safer? If you're not super 'eroes anymore?" He had wanted to ask what on Earth people would want with him? However, he had feared the answer he would receive and decided to keep that question for later.

Emma smiled, something Leeland had not expected. "Dear, if we could simply walk into the building and take you out with only a tiny influence, imagine someone going in there with force. It's not just your safety we're concerned about." Putting it that way made Leeland's stomach squirm and he pressed himself further back into the seat. He had not thought about all of those doctors and patients in the hospital who would have been hurt by people wanting to get to him.

"What makes yah think puttin' me in your school won't endanger your students?" And to that, Emma turned to him, the smile still on her face. "Because Leeland, my students are made of much stronger stuff."

_Well._ Thought Leeland. _They would have to be to deal with you._ It was in that instance that Leeland had decided he did not much like Emma Frost, but he was grateful that the pair of them had not left him in that hospital. Unlike his father…

A contemplating silence fell in the car and Leeland watched as rain began to drip down onto the clear glass. The heavens had opened and he watched as the sun tried it's best to be seen behind the dull formation of the clouds.

_I keep hitting a wall Scott. A barrier I could at least see through but_… Emma peered from the corner of her eyes towards Scott's ruby glasses. There was certainly an upside to being a psychic; it was almost an art how the two could communicate without being detected.

_He won't let you in? Well I'm not entirely surprised Emma. Some people find it courteous if you ask first._

_It's not that._ Emma frowned. _You know I always ask if I can-_

_When you want to._

_Scott really, there's no time for being petty. I don't think he's put it there himself._

Scott took his eyes from the road for a split second and looked down at Emma who gave a soft shrug of her shoulders that went unnoticed by Leeland.

_Someone already knows about him?_

_Perhaps. Or he's done what most young telepathic mutants have done and accidentally shut his own mind off. Maybe that's why Cerebro had such a hard time finding him. After all, blowing a chunk out of your school could give way to a number of possible powers but telepathic is the only one that seems to make sense right now._

_So he what, unconsciously lifted it when he was in danger? There's something more to this Emma, it doesn't feel right._ Scott rolled his shoulders uncomfortably; he could not quite explain the feeling he that had settled in the pit of his stomach. The first mutant in over a year, he supposed he just expected more than a skinny English kid who had no idea what he could do. It annoyed him, but it was not the child he was annoyed at, more at how events where unfolding.

_I know what you're thinking Scott and I agree, something just doesn't feel right._ She left it at that and went back to her own thoughts.

Peculiar, it was all very peculiar. Emma thought about her students, some of them as young as twelve who had developed their own mutation much younger than that. It certainly was not unusual for someone to gain his or her powers as old as Leeland was, but it was not heard of often. She wondered what would have triggered his powers, but she would ask about the hole in the roof when they were not sat out in public in a vehicle. If it were to happen again, then who knows how bad the blast could be and how many people would be hurt. Oh Emma may have appeared cold on the outside, but she was not completely heartless.

However, she glanced over her shoulder and watched the boy as he stared at the rain. If it was not for his height, she might have mistaken him for a fourteen-year-old boy. Perhaps it was because his face was devoid of facial hair, or the dimple he had in one of his cheeks. Despite this, there was something about Leeland that scared Emma. Not necessarily the boy himself, but certainly something. Guarded as she was, Emma did not_ try_ to keep her secrets from her lover but this one would have to wait.

The dimple was familiar if not vague. She closed her eyes and let it wander away in her mind until she needed it once again.

xxx

On the other side of the planet, in upper state New York, a young boy stormed down the corridors of the Xavier Institute. Perhaps storming was not quite the way to put it; it was more of a heated run that had the feel of something stronger. To storm somewhere meant that you had to have a purpose, which the boy did. However, he wanted to rant and rave and somewhere in the back of mind that was not storming, that was just being in a very sour mood.

His toes cramped up inside his sandals, trying to keep them on his feet as they slapped down to the metal plated corridor underneath. He was annoyed for several reasons, first because he had drawn the short straw and had been practically bullied by the others down into the sub basement. Secondly, he had a more personal reason to be irritated and it took all of his will not to slam his hand into the wall.

"When were you going to tell us then!" Fairly shouting, the boy stood in the entrance way of the laboratory and narrowed his dark eyes at the man before him. When he was younger, Victor Borkowski wondered whether Beast really was a man or something completely different and off the charts. However, when he thought of the Doctor as something other than his science teacher, he thought of himself as something other than an average teenage boy.

A boy he was, average far and from. His dark green skin fairly gleamed in the bright overhead lights of the lab. Victor's reptilian mutation gave him almost tasteful scaly skin that littered the top of his arms. Hair had not been a luxury for him for a long time and instead a spiked carapace formed on the top of his head. Muscles had started to form on his almost five foot nine frame but at sixteen years old; he had taken his share of training in the Danger Room and a little bit of beefing up was expected.

Doctor Henry McCoy turned with a perplexed quirk of one furry blue eyebrow and pressed his glasses down from the top of his head to the bridge of his equally blue nose. For a moment he stood and watched the young boy and at how his chest heaved a little too much beneath his t-shirt.

"And so they begin to ask questions." He placed his notebook down upon the table and turned to look at the boy. Anger was all that stared back at him and he blinked yellow eyes at Victor.

"What's wrong?" He asked, almost expecting something different to come from the teenager's mouth but he knew he would have to be the one to tell them, he always was. It was all well and good for Emma and Scott to jet of the United Kingdom to retrieve the new suspected mutant; he believed they had the easier job.

"It could have been avoided Doc, all of it! That's what's wrong and you know it!" Victor felt his fists clutch at his sides, did not realise that he was digging extended claws into the flesh of his palms. Angry half moon welts stung into his hands and it was only when the pain shot up his arms did he take a deep breathe and closed his eyes.

"Oh Victor." Beast gave a shake of his head, sighing as he walked across the laboratory and over towards one his favourite students. Victor pulled his hands up and peered at them, at the bright crimson marks that contrasted against the dark green on his skin. He shook them to be rid of the stinging, but wrapped his arms around his chest and hugged himself. It looked childish and he knew he must have looked like the worlds sulkiest child. But that was exactly how Victor felt and no amount of Beasts pleading calm voice was going to change that.

"What happened with the Purifiers…" Beast was not sure where to start with that though. Telling Victor that the school may have been shot up even if all the students were still intact would certainly not help.

It had been awful, put simply. First the main majority of the students lost their abilities and then they had to send those without parents away just so they could be safe, protected. They had not been so protected in a school bus that had exploded the instant the key was slotted into the ignition. Now that he thought about it, Beast could see the whole event in slow motion and there was simply nothing he could do about it. They all died. As if to add insult to injury was four more of their still mutant active students were cruelly assassinated.

A girl with a shock of pretty blonde hair was sniped in her boyfriend's arms. Another sought revenge, or perhaps it was redemption, and returned with his wings amputated, bled out along the steps that greeted them all every time they stepped out onto the porch. On that very porch, two other boys where shot, not even old enough to drink and drive let alone to be gunned down for simply being born. It was more than cruel and there was simply nothing Beast could do except hope that he could keep the others safe.

"It didn't have to be that way. Max and…Paras…" Victor stopped himself though, closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath with a shake of his head. "Forget it. I was supposed to ask you who she or he is and if it's really true. Guess I got a little wound up." Instead of smiling though and shrugging the pain away, he sounded bitter and when his eyes met Beasts, the teacher did not see the pupil he remembered. He saw an angry teenage boy who has lost someone just that bit closer than a friend.

They all knew Victor was gay, whether they liked it or not was simply none of their business. He liked who and what he was and he had liked Paras Gavaskar. Beast knew he still liked him when the boy spat blood down himself, shock with the impact of hot lead searing into his chest cavity. He was dead within seconds, but Victor had held onto his friend's body until it grew into a cold weight in his arms and all of the tears had been cried from his body mixing with the congealed blood.

"Yes, Cerebro found a new mutant. Someone who didn't have powers before M-day but has them now."

"So it was a fluke. No more mutants…didn't last very long did it?" He very nearly smirked at the floor but looked up at his teacher. Something like shock passed over Beasts features when he saw the hate and anger built up in those vivid green eyes that were once so bright. He shook his head of blue fur and felt like spreading his hands out wide in an open palmed shrug. What did the boy expect him to do, build a time machine? What was done was done and he for one was more than excited to meet this new mutant. That was, if he or she was even a mutant. Emma had doubts, which meant everyone else had them as well.

With a deep sigh he peered at Victor and some of that hate seeped away, his gaze shifted and he looked softly down at the floor. "What is you wanted to ask Victor? Or should I ask, what does Julian want you to ask?" That rewarded Beast with a hint of a smile and he watched Victor look up, his shoulders a little more relaxed than they had been a few moments before.

"He's worried about the girls really, we all are." When he spoke this time, his voice was softer as if the blind bit of anger had been a different Victor. It was not like him to raise his voice, but since the shootings, well Beast was hopeful that it would only be a matter of time before they got back the calm headed Victor Borkowski.

"The triplets are fine, they were very adamant about keeping the new mutant safe. It won't be long before others find out about him, or her. It would be nice to have a day or two without some _delightful_ Human's First group trying to finish what the Scarlet Witch started." He let out an almost whimsical sigh and was quite proud of himself that he had not let slip that perhaps it would be the Purifiers who would finish the job.

Victor gave a soft nod his head and rested his back on the door frame; his hands clenched and. "We haven't seen them in days, and Noriko's all pissy off because David got to fly the jet." It sounded ever so petty when he said it, but everyone was feeling like that of late. They were supposed to be a team, the untied X-men but Victor was starting to have doubts whether any of them wanted to be super heroes anymore. Of course they had a choice, no one was forcing them to don the spandex but he had supposed that would be almost like a bird walking just because it had legs, leaving his wings to lay dormant. Just because they where there didn't mean the bird really had to use them…Well, that was what Victor kept telling himself.

He felt his eyes slipping, the cool metal felt wonderful against his warm sweat beaded neck, he knew he should not have tried storming his way towards Beast. The man was practically a large house cat. A large house cat with an even larger brain and vocabulary.

"I think everyone's just a little bit stressed at the moment Doc, me too. Sorry I barged in here like that." His cheeks darkened as if his body was trying very hard to show that he was truly embarrassed. Beast knew though that Victor was not angry with him, he just happened to be there for him to rant at.

"How are the children?" Three of the school's students where under thirteen, though Megan like to boast that she was almost fourteen and that meant she was not one of the baby's any longer. Max had been one of the baby's until lead found its way into his brain. Had the sniper realised the child he killed was twelve? Would he have cared that his favourite colour was blue and that he woke up early on Saturdays to watch cartoons?

Victor let out a long sigh, a smile curling at his lips as he shook his head. "Nick decided he was going to draw on Santo, I lost track of Megan. I left Ernie with Ruth though; she said she'd watch her." Victor did not want to question how a blind person would watch anything; it was better to just agree and promise to retrieve Ernie later when Julian was not dragging him towards the lift.

That was what had angered him. Why could Julian not go and ask himself if he was so curious as too know who the mutant was? After all, it was not like the hot head to simply sit still and wait for the news to come to him. As it was though, Julian was in the doghouse with Beast after calling him some rather inappropriate names when the teenager lost control of his powers. Apparently, his bed looked better outside on the lawn anyway and who was the Doc to question his motives?

There was a loud thud from the upper levels that caused the ceiling of the lab to vibrate. Victor spread his arms out to steady himself and closed his eyes. He was not going to go upstairs to find that Santo was running through the corridors, chasing after the wolf child. He was not. So why did he give an exasperated sigh when Beast merely chuckled at him.

"Tell Julian he'll know soon enough, and that if he doesn't help you with the children then I know a 5 am training session with his name upon it."

xxx

As Leeland stood he chewed the corner of his mouth. Chewed until he could feel the skin grating over his teeth, until blood pounded in his ears and his stomach was riffled with knots. The wind whipped past their hair, sending his in an awkward direction that meant he had to keep sweeping it from his eye's just to see the vehicle before him.

Perhaps it was because he had never flown before but something deep inside the boy screamed that if he got on the plane then he would never be talking to himself ever again. There was just something unnatural about flying, submerged between two pieces of metal with nothing below you but the very hard ground. He could see himself spread like seedless jam all across England, one great big red streak with some blonde here and there.

_Get a hold of yourself Williams; it's just a plane. Just a great big, almost alien looking space ship. You're going to get in it with people you've only just met to take you to a country that presume everyone from the UK lives in London. Breath._ He took a deep breath and let his eye's close.

"Leeland?" A sharp voice called and he felt himself jump. Sharply he cursed himself and turned his attention towards Emma who was stood on the gangway of the Black Bird. It was an SR-71, or so he had been informed. A plane the government had designed, made and then promptly retired due to being too costly to maintain. Apparently cost was no problem for the X-men. It was approximately over a hundred foot long and fifty-five foot wide and Leeland noticed that it was at least three times as high as he was. He wondered how the matte black finish helped it to camouflage but then he presumed with an engine as loud as it had, it would not have to be camouflaged. It would fly to dam fast for anyone to catch up with it and that thought alone made his stomach lurch.

"Coming." He muttered as he took the first step forward towards the plane. He stopped though once his foot was positioned on the gangway. He turned to look over his shoulder at the small airfield they were in and thought for a moment that he could hear whispering. As he strained to listen though he noticed that the voice, or whatever it was, was not coming from the airfield. Looking back at the gang way his eye's traveled upwards and landed on someone he had yet to meet.

The boy was younger than he was with his hair in tight black curls formed close to his head.

"Hey." He smiled as he pushed an orange visor up to rest on the top of his head. Wearing a uniform of black and blue that contrasted with his skin, he held a hand out to Leeland. He could not have been any older than sixteen and Leeland towered over him but in that moment, it was he who suddenly felt like a small child.

"I'm David." The boy said, taking his hand back that Leeland had not accepted.

"Sorry, Leeland." The blonde held his own hand out sheepishly, a shy smile curling at his lips. "In a world of my own there." He admitted and it was David's turn to look at him curiously, but grasped his hand at the same time. "Not really the best thing to admit out loud." He muttered after that as David continued to stare at him. Leeland wondered if he had blown his first impression but he realised he most likely already achieved that with waking up in a metal institution.

"I thought you would be…" David trailed off, moving his hand up to his own eye height, still staring up at the exceptionally tall boy. The blonde felt himself physically stoop and his cheeks flared with heat. He had always disliked how he was judged for his height. People usually came to two conclusions; he was exceedingly dumb or hard as nails, sometimes both. So his grades were not the best but he had known from experience that he couldn't fight to save his skin.

"How old are you anyway?" David asked.

"Eighteen." Leeland replied and thought the urge to laugh as David arched a thin dark eyebrow at him, his eyes filling his head a little too much as he stared in disbelief. "Well ah will be in December. Why, 'ow old are you?"

"Sixteen…In two months." They both shared a smile before David turned and beckoned the English boy into the depth of the plane.

"Should ah be younger?" He asked but the inside of the jet caught him off guard and the soft whispering returned to his ears. It was a rush of warm air settling around him and he stood for a moment simply listening to the sounds of humanoid voices. It was peculiar after the initial shock of hearing nothing but a continuous line of beeps. The inside of the Black bird was fitted with soft blue lighting that lit up the surrounding areas. Seats where fitted along the walls in the back and two were positioned in the cockpit of the jet. Scott, who was checking various buttons, occupied one of the seats and he stared at him while he did so.

Each new button pressed would make a new voice erupt from inside the jet, but it mingled together, blended to form one voice with a multitude of tone and pitches. David watched this boy curiously, his own conclusions of him forming inside his head.

"So what's your mutation?" David asked and Leeland slowly brought himself from his trance like state. He peered at his dark eyes before giving a soft shrug of his shoulders. "No idea, you?"

"Don't have one."

"Then how-" David put his hand up to stop Leeland, a sad smile curling on his lips before he shook his head softly. "I lost my mutation on M-day, but I decided to stay at the institute. Xavier wanted the school to be for both mutants and humans anyway, besides losing my powers wasn't going to stop me from learning to fly the jet."

"Oh." Leeland scratched at the back of his head before turning back to Scott, confusion clearly written upon his face.

"Are you going to be alright?" David asked and Leeland could only shrug, smiling over his shoulder to him. "Ah think so but…does the jet always make this noise?" He asked and something uncomfortable pooled into him when David pulled a face.

"What noise?" He asked, walking around to head towards his own seat next to Scott. They exchanged a glance and Leeland felt his hands balling into fists by his side.

"Don't tell me you can't hear it? You can't miss it!"

"What does it sounds like?" Leeland peered over his shoulder at Emma who stood with one hand resting upon her hip, the over on the button to lift the gang walk. Where as Scott and David had looked at him with equal peculiar expressions, Emma simply looked intrigued. That made the blonde feel a little bit better than he had done a moment before and he blinked.

The sounds surrounding him where soft and human, nothing he had heard since the accident. Cool and blue, if voices could have colours and temperatures. It was soothing in away and he had to stop himself smiling at the voices that beckoned him forward, invited him to sit and that everything was going to be fine.

"Ah think...No, it is. It's the jet." Leeland was more than convinced that if he ran out onto the airfield, then the whispering would stop. That what he was hearing was coming directly from inside the plane.

Now Emma was more than convinced that whatever the boys mutation was, ran along something telepathic. But she was yet to be convinced and kept her opinions to herself.

"Like the engines?" David asked and Leeland found himself frowning. "You know, ah might never have been in plane before but ah know what an engine sounds like." They peered at him like he had grown a second head and was surprised to find that it was far more intellectual than he was.

"Forget it. Jus' forget it." The boy frowned before looking around and sitting in a seat furthest away from the others. It made him look as anti social as he felt, wrapping his arms around his upper torso.

David turned and arched an eyebrow at Scott who only frowned and shook his head. "Better call home." He said quietly to himself before powering the jet up.

_Can't you talk to him?_ Scott thought as he peered up at Emma who ignored him as she took her place next to him.

_I'm terrible with children._ She left it that as she began to think, turning to peer out of the window as they set of from the dismal rainy country.

The boy had fallen into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of white spiders dripping down into his back and hair and that he could no longer see them, but he could feel them there upon his skin. The ever-looming darkness in his minds eye crept ever closer towards him and he wondered for a moment if his ears were bleeding. Inside his dreamland, he placed his hands on top of his head in fear of something unknown swooping and gobbling him up. But he found it impossible to then remove his hands from his head and even worse, impossible to scream.

There was a soft blur in front of him and two hands reached out. A part of him wanted to let those fingers embrace him and seep into them. The rational side of Leeland's brain urged him to turn and run.

There was an almighty thud that caused him to stumble in his dream, his arms slipping from his head and smacking down onto the hard ground below. It hummed with life and he trailed his fingertips delicately over the surface he had landed on. Yet another thud sent him rolling to one side. Voices seeped in and the boy blinked.

He was on his front, with his hands pressed down against the floor of the jet. For a second, his vision was blurred and his hearing non-existent. That was before the terrible onslaught of shrill shrieks and beeping of the passengers within. Had they hit turbulence? The boy pushed himself upwards, only to feel hands on the small of his back pressing him back down.

"Stay down!" he heard someone whisper harshly into his ear. "They're trying to find you."

"How'd yah figure that one out?" Leeland gritted his teeth, his voice raspy. A string of fear curled together in his stomach and he took a deep breath.

David was trying to keep himself and Leeland pushed flat against the floor of the jet. When Leeland looked into David's eye's he saw real terror. The plane thudded to the side again and he had to slap his hands against the walls of the jet just to keep some kind of balance.

"Ms. Frost told me to keep you down. They're not quite sure who it is yet."

"What if they're not after me at all? What if they don't even know ah'm 'ere?" Leeland licked out over his dry lips and peered around the seat he had been previously sitting in.

Scott was trying his hardest to steer the plane, from what the boy could see. Emma was stood at the helm with her hands pressed towards her temple; her eye's focused on some unseen danger that lurked ahead.

"Scott...I would rather not shout at you darling, but this is rather starting to become annoying." The woman gritted her teeth, her legs shaking from whatever force was pressing against her. The jet jutted and rocked again and Scott looked up frantically when a red light began to flash ominously at him.

"That's not good." Said David from behind the boy's head. "That's really not good."

"What is it?" Leeland asked as he snapped his head back to stare at the other teenager who licked out over his dry lips. "Means life supports off line and...We're going down." As soon as David uttered the words, both boys felt the sudden lurch inside their stomachs and Emma collapsed to the ground in a small white clad heap.

Lying flat on the hard metal floor, Leeland scrunched his eye's up and threw his hands out, grabbing the metal grates underneath his fingers.

"...come on." He muttered, urging those strange voices to come back, to help them get out of this with all their limbs attached.

_Systems failure. Systems failure. Stems failure. Systems failure. Systems failure. Systems failure._

The words began to repeat over and over as the jet began it's decent, but Leeland only dug his fingers harder into the grate. "Come on, please, please. PLEASE!" He felt it then, his voice mingled with both human and something more akin to machines and wiring. The jet pulled up, and just at the last minute and the whole contraption jittered to the side violently.

Keeping his fingers on the grate, he pushed himself up so he was crouching. The whispers came back to him, circling him with a warm currant and he found himself milling and nodding his head. "Yeah. Ah'm sorry." he said to himself, quite unaware of David staring at him with wide eye's that where now shielded with his orange visor.

The X-jet was hurt and Leeland could feel it pulsing through his veins. A soft burning like being too close to a fire licked at his skin and his vision began to blur. He tried his best to see past it and very slowly he lifted his fingers from the grate. They came away pain laced and slick with blood, but he carried on as if all was well and came closer to standing than crouching. "Ease up." He whispered. "You're safe now." There was no more thudding against the side of the plane or even a commotion outside its protected control.

Emma came around with her head in her hands, nursing a migraine that felt more like a hangover that had been hit by a piano repeatedly. She turned pain filled eye's too see Scott coming too at the helm of the pilots seat and her heart thudded inside her chest; who was flying the jet!

With a sharp turn of her head that granted her more pain, her vision fixated itself up the skinny pale child in front of her and she felt nausea seep into her stomach.

"Ah...Ah can't do it for much longer." He said quietly, his hands rose as if both directing an orchestra and trying to keep himself stable on a surfboard. David slipped past his as quick as his legs could carry him and moved himself urgently into the second pilots seat. He began flicking odd switches here and there only to find that they were moving quite on their own. But he looked over his shoulder to find the blonde wobbling, his fingers still moving and his lips muttering incoherent words.

Emma dragged herself to her feat, or as upright as she could be without falling or disgracing herself with vomiting.

"David. Prodigy you better have those controls ready."

"Yes ma'am, just about."

"Oh my head." Scott groaned from the pilots seat and tried to prop himself up on his elbows.

"Leeland?" She asked and the boy looked towards her with sweat beading upon his brow, dark circles even more prominent under his pale eyes.

"Can ah let go now?" He asked quietly, but a strange smile seeped across his face and he staggered backwards before Emma could even reply to him. Slowly, he fell to the floor, smacking the back of his head against something hard. There was a moment of calm and quiet before darkness fluttered in front of his eyes and he was out for the count.

**TBC ~**


	3. Mostly Harmless

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 16/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 3:** Mostly Harmless

Groaning, Leeland raised his hands towards his eyes and tried to beat away the sharp light that pooled into his sockets.

"Ukk, Dad. Five more minutes." He murmured only to hear a low bemused chuckle in return. Not quite ready to acknowledge the sounds, the boy kept his eyes closed and pulled his lips inside his mouth. It was dry and he felt the spit pool at the corner of his lips causing him to cough.

"Take it easy." He heard the voice again, only this time with words. The boy had come to the conclusion that perhaps it was not his father flicking his bedroom light on, telling him to get his butt out of bed or he was going to miss the college bus. That thought alone made him smile before a sudden dull ache pulsed at the back of his head.

"Oh God. What 'it me?" He blinked several times only to find the light above him was too harsh and he lifted his arm to block his view. The boy felt queasy and decided to try and sit up, only to find that large hands pulled him back down to the soft platform beneath his back.

"I believe it was the Jet. Or should I say, you hit yourself with it." The voice commented and Leeland remembered. He had been inside the blackbird and something had attacked them. But what though, and why did his hands feel as if he had run them through a cheese grater?

"Think yah could lower the lights?" He asked in a small voice.

"Certainly." Came the reply.

It was then that the boy lowered his arms and tried one again to open his eyes. At once his breath left his body as he scanned around what appeared to be a medical bay with his mouth partially opened. Machines littered the room and his surrounding area. Electronically induced arms peered over him, titling their heads to one side as to figure him out. Flicking his eyes to the sides he was greeted by a clear shield that hovered quite perfectly on its own and caused him to hold his breath in anticipation.

The light above him turned out to be from the machine he was laying inside. It reminded him of a full body X-ray machines. Only this one covered his head and gulping, he remembered to keep very still. But he could not help let his eye's wander to the rest of the room. Strange machines and devices littered the ceilings and walls, each one of them whirring and humming away to itself and he felt a sense of warmth glide across his partially clothed body.

Though that thought in itself alarmed him and he suddenly needed to question why he was only dressed in his boxers? Though as his hands where bandaged and not strapped to the table he believed he was still with the X-men and had not been kidnapped.

"Are the machines talkin'?" It was the only thing he could think to say and how very stupid it did sound when it left the safety of his mind. The unknown being chuckled one again and a dark shadow loomed over him from the mass of entwined machines and contraptions. A terror rose in Leeland's throat at the thought of the darkness seeping over him and it took all his might not to scrunch his eye's up in fear.

"They seem to be talking to you Leeland, just like you spoke to the jet."

The boy continued to stare up at the shadow in the wires and machinery. That was until the being leaned forward into the light and he was so very glad that he was lying down or he may have fallen over.

The blue beast grinned his pearly whites down at the boy on the bed, dangling with content from the machines and wires. Having the architectural structure of the room mapped out to run with the beast's physical mutation meant that he could swing from tower to machine with little struggle. That being said, he leaned towards the boy with his feat wrapped around a large electrical chord and pushed his little round spectacles up his cat like nose.

"Doctor Henry McCoy at your service." The beast smiled. "I'd shake your hand but wouldn't want to aggravate your wounds anymore. Call me Hank."

Leeland nodded his head, noting how the beast, Hank, wore a white dress shirt complete with trouser braces and a little red bow tie. All of this was hidden neatly underneath a white lab coat with the famous X embellished on the breast pocket. The blonde suddenly felt even more uncomfortable than usual with his lack of attire and the swinging cat-monkey that looked ready to sweep the noble prize.

"It doesn't really like yah doin' that." He said quietly as he peered past the man and towards the machine, which he was perched upon. Hank arched an inquisitive blue eyebrow and peered down at the boy who pressed his lips together.

"S-Sorry." He muttered, as if he had done something wrong before flicking his eyes back up to the mutant. "It's just that you're pressing the wires inside together an…" He trailed off as the beast peered at the machine he was perched on before gently swigging to the ground using his long arms for leverage.

"So you _can_ talk to them?" He peered down at the boy who gave a soft shrug of his shoulders. "Or at least you can hear them?" Hank questioned and the boy frowned at him. "Better than ah can hear you." Leeland said a little defensively, still concerned with his lack of attire.

"I'm sorry." Said the Beast. "You can sit up, by the way." Leeland did so, slowly pulling his legs towards him before sitting crossed legged up on the platform bed. Wrapping his bandaged hands around himself he got to peer around the room more and smiled up at the machines that peered down at him.

Watching. They where all watching him, almost waiting for him to do something but Leeland could not quite figure what it would be.

"Shoo." He whispered to them and one of the hand like devices moved closer to him and opened and closed its jaws. It then moved backwards but Leeland still felt as if its 'eyes' were upon him.

Beast pottered around for a moment before retrieving the boy's folded pile of clothes and handing them back to him of which he was very grateful. Wasting no time, he shoved on his t-shirt and pulled on his jeans and socks.

Doctor McCoy peered at the boy behind his glasses and wondered if he had stared at him long enough. It was strange though, meeting the boy only to find that he had about as much insight into his mutation as they did, which appeared to be not much. Leeland wondered if he should do a trick, but kept his opinions firmly to himself.

"I expected you to be-"

"Younger?" Leeland asked with a smile and the Beast smiled back with a small roll of his shoulders. "I suppose so."

"So I suppose you already know where you are, though I'm afraid this isn't as grand as the rest of the house. Though they want to keep you down here for a while. Defuse the situation upstairs first."

"Situation?" Leeland asked.

Beast chuckled and nodded his head as he moved between the machines, his fingers gracing the screens that supported themselves with shimmering blue lights.

"The other students are quite eager to meet you." Just as the words left his lips, there was a large thud from the upper levels that shook the walls and machinery around them. Leeland's first reaction was to throw his hands above his head and cower, just in case something was to fall through the floor. Beast continued as if nothing had happened, a small smile upon his lips.

"You'll meet that one later."

In the upper levels, negotiating with the students that everything was fine was not going quite the way Emma had planned. She had a rotten headache that had refused to budge and a ten tonne teenager throwing a two year olds tantrum.

"So you were attacked because of this kid? And you still brought him here!" Santo Vaccarro was six foot two and weighed nearly five hundred pounds. His entire body was constructed of craggy, grey organic rock and he was certain to intimidate nearly anyone he came across. However, the young mutant known as Rockslide may have been made of rock but that did not mean there was nothing but rubble on the brain.

"Doesn't that seem a little stupid?" Julian finished for him. Patting his friend's mighty arm, the wiry dark haired boy crossed his own arms and tilted his head to the side as he peered at his teacher. Each and every single student in front of her did the same. If she felt cornered then she did not show it. Emma Frost was no pushover and she certainly was not going to let a bunch of children back her into the corner.

"Do I have to remind any of you?" Started Scott. "That you were all once in the same position."

"No." Replied Santo. "None of us are the first mutants since M-day and if there's people trying to kill this kid out there, then what's to say he's safer here? Far as I can see, you just put the rest of us in danger."

"Santo's right." Julian chirped in and there was a small chorus of yes's and nodding of heads. They had lost too many friends all ready and no one was quite willing to risk it all for someone they were yet to meet.

Scott did not want to believe what he was hearing and he certainly did not want to agree with his students, but they did bring up a good point. However, what were they supposed to do with him other than protect him? Not that he would mention it in front of the student body, but Cerebro was yet to confirm him as a mutant and that was what was bothering him.

"Ok." Emma suddenly said with a small flick of her wrist. "We'll just call him a taxi and let the rest of the world get their hands on him. Oh I'm sure there's a mutant hate group out there who would love to get their hands on the missing link. I suppose you're all right…" The woman did not have to deal with this, neither did she have to remind a bunch of snot nosed children that they didn't have a say in the matter.

Leaving the common room, one could hear a pin drop.

"Just remember." Said Scott. "It could have been one of you."

The students were angry and hurt, not long having lost their friends to devastating circumstances. Having been in the same situation countless times before, the X-man wondered why this time was so different. Emma was right; the boy was a kind of missing link; a hope that mutants could move off of the endangered species list.

He left the room following after Emma, leaving the students in silence.

"Well." Said Julian. "That could have gone better." The green-eyed boy tucked a strand of dark scraggly hair behind his ear and peered up at his rock friend who only rolled his eyes in response.

David was keeping quiet of course, in the back on the room. Though as soon as the teachers had left, he felt eye's bore into him and it took all of his concentration to keep his eyes focused on the book he held in his hands.

"Spill it Alleyne." He heard from the recess of the quiet but the boy was keeping his lips sealed.

"Come on David, what's he like?" The Japanese mutant with bottle blue hair slid into the sofa next to him, resting her gauntlet covered arms over her knees. It took one look from Noriko to make him sigh and shut his book. Peering upwards, he was aware of just over twenty students crowding around him but if he was being truthful, he knew about as much as they did.

"Spacey." Was his only comment and Julian scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll see." Came his reply but as he scanned his fellow classmates he arched an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Urm, has anybody else seen Victor?"

If know one else was going to find out who the new mutant was, then Victor supposed he'd better get along and elect himself for such a job. The triplets were still busy with Cerebro and Emma and Scott were talking to the rest of the students. His other instructors where on away missions that meant there was little possibility of him running into anyone he didn't want to. After all, now that the new mutant was here they had all been banned from the lower levels until it was deemed safe. Victor knew however that if something wanted to get into the mansion and take the kid then it would do so. Six levels underneath the ground was not going to stop anything.

Though as he tiptoed along the metal corridors he secretly wondered what this person would be like. Would they be a boy or a girl, his age or younger and most importantly, what would their power be? Surely it had to be something great to say they where the first new mutant in over a year but he supposed anything could happen.

They had to be keeping the kid in the medical bay and he was very certain that Beast would not turn him away. All he wanted was one peek and then he would return back upstairs like the good little mutant he was.

"So, what does it do?" He heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the medical room and he was ever so quiet as he slipped closer to the doorway.

"Well, not a lot at the moment. It doesn't seem to want to work." Beast sighed as he peered down at the screen in front of him, well aware of Leeland peering over his shoulder.

"Is it me?" He asked and Beast shrugged his shoulders softly before scratching his head in confusion. "Maybe. It would certainly run in line with your mutation."

"Sorry." Leeland grimaced. "I've broken three computers in the last two years. All because I sat down at them and switched them on." The boy decided he would back away from the screen but that only brought him closer to more machinery.

Beast chuckled. "I highly doubt you're doing it on purpose Leeland."

"Lee." Said the boy. "Leeland always made me sound like a hippy."

"Lee it is." Beast smiled before setting his hands on his hips. He just couldn't understand why the machine wouldn't work for him? Then again, the boy didn't understand why the machines and electrical equipment were talking to him, hadn't he blown a hole in the roof? How did that run in line with his mutation? Oh he was so very confused and ran a bandaged hand through his lank pale hair, which he mussed, was in need of a good wash.

So the new mutant was a boy and British by the sound of it. Victor poked his head around the doorframe and squinted between the medical equipment until his eye's rested on a familiar blue mutant and someone who made him blink twice.

Victor arched a slim green eyebrow before frowning. Had he expected something more than a skinny pale kid who appeared to have a good couple of inches on his own height? Yes, in side his mind he had come to the conclusion of a child no older than Nicholas, twelve of thirteen at least.

Leeland turned as one of the machines whispered inside his head causing him to look almost bemused for a moment. It was like trying to swat away a fly that you knew wasn't there.

_He's watching you. Don't you want to say hello. No one ever talks to us. Why won't you talk to us? Look! He moved._

"Shhh, ah can't hear." He said between gritted teeth trying to focus on what Beast was telling him but the mess of humanoid voices inside his mind was making it hard for him to concentrate. It was only when he turned to question Beast did he spot the green teenager in the door way and he quickly shut his slightly gaping mouth.

"Uhh." He said stupidly, looking between the boy and Beast.

"Hmm?" The older mutant looked upwards and frowned at his student hiding in the doorway. The boy had quickly tried to cover his mistake of being caught by blending into the surrounding area with his camouflaging ability but the trick was lost of Beast.

"Mr. Borkowski. We can both see you quite clearly." Beast droned out, removing his spectacles to wipe them gently with the side of his lab coat.

"I can't." Leeland muttered quietly from behind his back.

Victor silently cursed himself but stepped into the room in full view. Crossing his arms over his chest he peered up at the boy across from him, judging him silently. First impressions were always important but Victor could see nothing special about the boy. It looked to be as he was one of those people you had too even keep out of the shade without factor 50 sun screen. The freckles on his nose made him look about twelve and Victor feared his arms where going to snap like twigs. The only thing that alerted him to his age were the ludicrous pieces of metal in his face. Apart from that, he wasn't very impressed.

Oh victor knew, of all people, that he shouldn't judge someone solely on looks. But Victor was feeling sour and he had been for some time. What he had wanted was not for some new mutant to make the leap into evolution, perhaps pulling them out of the brink of extinction. Victor wanted his friends back and this new skinny boy wasn't going to be able to do that.

"uhh, hello." Leeland smiled, his heart hammering away in his chest. The boy had never been good with meeting new people and he had spent the first few weeks of college on his own because of just that. Not that he was anti social, jut that he never knew what to say to people and would make a fool of himself the rest of the time.

"Hi." Said the green boy. "So…British huh?" He asked, suddenly aware at how awkward the tension in the room was. Perhaps it was him and his body language, arms crossed and guarded. With that in mind, he lowered them to his side and made an attempt to come further into the room.

"Yup. Last time ah checked." Leeland smiled nervously and Victor got the distinct impression that he had intimidated the boy a little bit.

It was not the boy's appearance that caused Leeland to forget to answer questions with anything remotely intelligible. The green skin had of course made him wonder for a moment and his lack of hair had made him more conscious to the fact that his own mess of blonde was steadily sweeping in front of his eyes.

"Leeland this is Victor. Why don't you show him around the lower levels hmm?" Beast came to their rescue of the uncomfortable silence and the green mutant nodded his head. "And maybe I can figure out why this machine isn't working." More importantly, he could figure out why it would not work for Leeland. Perhaps Emma was done with the children upstairs, maybe she would have some insight into it.

The machines whispered bye to Leeland and he left the room as quickly as he could without looking back. The pair walked down the corridors in silence but Leeland was too busy taking in the odd sights to register the uncomfortable tension.

The metallic walls and floor echoed their footsteps down the long corridors. Passing rooms and doors that would lead them even further into the depths of the Xavier institute. Leeland knew it had to be big but he had never needed to compromise just how big it was. So many questions and yet he was scared to ask the boy who walked next to him who he felt was only taking him along as to not be punished for being down in the lower levels. The blonde had suspected that the students had been banned from the stepping down stairs and anywhere near him.

Finally, Victor spoke up. "So what can you do?" It had stopped Leeland in the middle of his tracks and he paused to look down at the green hued mutant next to him. Rolling his lips into his mouth he gave a light shrug of his shoulders. "I erm…Ah can't really 'ear very well. Well ah can 'ear it's just…um…I'm not." He wasn't sure what to say now that he had been questioned. Victor was making him nervous.

"Ah get the impression you don't like me very much." He finally decided on, trying his best to keep the boy's gaze with his own. Victor faltered and very nearly choked on his own spit.

"I don't even know you!" Was his childish come back and the words had left his mouth before his brain could even register them.

"Exactly!" Leeland exclaimed and he tried to shove his hands into his pockets, but the cuts on his palms stung something rotten. "So…so stop looking at me like ah've grown a third head to go with the second one." It was supposed to sound snappy, but it came out sulky.

"I-I'm not!"

"Yes you are. Ah don't know what ah've done but…but ah'm terrified all right. I am down right petrified and ah can't even tell you what my mutation is because ah jus' don't know!" The boy closed his eyes and brought his lip ring into his mouth, sucking on it ruthlessly with nerves. Stomach in knots, he was aware of his hands shaking inside his pockets and he flung them outwards in distress resting them behind his head.

"Ah was painting." He started quietly with a touch of hysteria in his tone. "That's all ah wanted to do, finish my paintin' an' go 'ome but…but she 'ad to freaking corner me an' ah don't know what 'appened!" Leeland stepped backwards, his back pressing up against the cold metal of the wall and he slid down it, resting his head in his arms.

Victor watched this with his mouth partially open and his hands slightly raised to grab the boy should he fall over. This was certainly not what he expected to happen and suddenly felt quite guilty of how cold he had appeared. He listened for the sounds of anyone in the corridors but there was nothing but the soft noise of the blonde sobbing into his arms. Now he had reduced the boy to tears.

_Great._ Thought Victor. _So much for leadership skills._

Leeland was vaguely aware of Victor stepping in front of him and then sliding down the wall next to him. There was space between them but he knew he was there at his side.

"I'm sorry." Said Victor quietly and he frowned in frustration at himself.

The blonde gave a small sniff and to Victor's surprise, a tiny sob filled laugh. Lifting his head up, he wiped furiously at his puffy red eyes and wiped his nose with the back of his arm. Victor reached into his pockets and pulled out a small wad of toilet tissue, sheepishly smiling at it as he handed it over to the other boy who was grateful for it.

"Nah. Yah got landed babysitting the new kid." He wiped his nose and regarded the stray fluffy strands of paper for a moment. "Ah'm seventeen. Ah thought when ah 'it seventeen ah wouldn't cry anymore."

"Why do you think that?"

Leeland only shrugged and turned to look at Victor. The boy wasn't that much shorter than him or, he mussed, younger than him but it was he who felt like the stumbling toddler. Unaware what was going on but knowing full well that there was a higher power controlling his life from the upper levels.

"When you turn 13 you think you're this big hard teenager who doesn't need hugs anymore."

"That's true." Victor mussed, resting his hands on his knees before tilting his head to look up at the blonde.

"Should we start again?" He asked and Leeland gave a meek laugh with a nod of his head.

"Sure. But ah'm afraid ah can't really shake your hand." He admitted and showed his oven mitt like hands that forced Victor to giggle.

Perhaps the pale skinny kid wouldn't be so bad.

xxx

On the other side of the lower levels, Emma scowled at the three teenage girls in front of her. They were identical down to their genes. Their blonde hair was cropped at their shoulders with blue eye's that peered at the woman in front of them.

"Well?" She asked the cuckoo sisters irritably with a small tap of her foot. Each girl regarded the foot before looking back up at her instructor.

"Whom ever is trying to get their hands on him…" Started Celeste.

"Are very good at hiding who they are." Mindee Concluded.

"What of the boy?" Emma asked and the girls regarded her again.

"Miss Frost? Are you hiding something from us?" Phoebe asked but if one were to blink, you would assume all three of them had asked her.

Emma straightened up and pushed a hand through her hair, doing her best to nurse the migraine that only seemed to be getting worse.

"Girls, I don't have the strength for this-"

"Neither do we." The girls said as one, their hive mind working in unison. "We've been using Cerebro for over three days now and it's really starting to hurt." Their voices where void of emotion and Emma looked at her most upstanding students; her girls, her daughters very nearly.

"Is it about the boy?" Celeste asked, "Because we believe we've found out something about him."

"I doubt it's something I'll like." She mussed and the girls nodded their heads in unison.

"We didn't like it either but we'll tell you if you tell us." They said together and Emma found it hard not to smile at the girls. There was simply too much of her there not to smile at. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing her teenage self. Terrifying but enlightening at the same time.

"I can't be sure yet."

"Then neither can we."

"Are you black mailing me?" Emma asked, marginally surprised.

"No." Said the girls. "Just withholding until we can be sure." Each girl stepped around Emma, the sound of their black dolly shoes clicked on the hard metal floor in unison until you couldn't tell that there where three of them.

xxx

"So what's wrong with it?" Scott asked as he peered at the computer screen in front of both he and the Beast. The furred mutant shook his head and pushed his little spectacles further up his nose with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"It works for me, and you. I've run everyone's DNA through it and it works perfectly. To tell you the truth I'm flabbergasted but if it was an internal problem then Forge would be here the moment the shift key started sticking."

"But it doesn't work for the boy?" Scott frowned. "So Cerebro won't pick him up with out the triplets help and now the machines won't work." Oh the medical equipment scanned him without any fault, and it quite easily detected his diabetes even the extra gene locked away in his DNA. But what they were having trouble with was Beasts pride and joy.

The machine was able to analyse DNA, to be able to cross-reference it with anyone else he had in the files. This way, he could easily pin point out any clones or unsuspected unknown relatives. So far, there had been nothing.

"As soon as he left the room with Victor, it began to work." Beast looked up at Scott who could only rub his chin in wonder. Was it perhaps safe letting the boy wander around with his students? After all, they knew little to nothing about him.

"I should bring him back here. Ban the kids from coming down-" he started for the door when Beast interjected.

"He isn't a prisoner Scott. He's a scared little boy who doesn't know what's going on. I'll try the machine again but I don't know what use it will be to anyone with you putting him in the holding cell and treating him like prisoner."

"And what if he's not a mutant. What if this is all a set up."

"And what if it's not. You'll loose his trust and then where will we be?" The Beast regarded his old friend who sighed and rested his hands upon the doorframe.

"Do we remember how many we used to turn away from here Scott and now we're scraping for those left. After everything that's happened, the Morlocks don't trust us…do we really want him to turn out like that?"

"You're right." Scott nodded his head. "But it still doesn't feel right."

"Then keep an eye on him, like you do with the others."

"And Emma?"

"What of her?"

Scott was quiet and then shook his head. It didn't matter. "I'll go find him."

"And this." Said Victor with his arms stretched out wide. "Is the Danger Room." The room it's self was huge; it was the only word Leeland could describe it with. The floors and walls were platted with metal like the rest of the lower levels and the ceiling held large fluorescent lights that the blonde squinted upwards at.

"Why do you call it that?" He asked and was reminded of his high school sports hall, only without the orange glare or someone's ten-year-old trainers lost up in the rafters. "What's the dangerous part?"

"It's not turned on." Victor smirked and Leeland pressed his lips together. "oh….I knew that." He pointed to the top of the roof where a small platform jutted outwards, encased in glass. "That's the control panel. Tell them what level you want and hey presto, you get something to fight."

"How does that work?" Leeland asked as he moved over to one of the walls, pressing his fingers lightly against the cool metal. "It's nano technology or something. I don't know, I major in Drama, not physics."

"Ahh, an actor, ah see." Leeland grinned over his shoulder to see Victor with his arms crossed over his chest, smirking in his direction. "But of course. I'm going to pave the way for mutants; maybe we'll get our own sitcom."

"Between fighting evil?" Leeland questioned and Victor nodded his head. "We'll everyone needs a hobby." They looked at each other then before both boys' began to giggle, some unspoken truce melting between them. He was glad the tension before had melted away and he was becoming quite interested in what lay ahead for him at the institute.

"So you have your gym lessons in here?"

"Sort of. More like training, really. We have a real gym hall upstairs but I wouldn't get on the wrong side of Mr. Logan or you'll end up in his 4am training sessions. You'll be begging for classes with Miss Frost in no time after that."

"Ah've got to go to school too? Man, I at least thought ah'd wiggled my way out of that one."

"Schooling works different here, but don't worry, we'll have you as smart as me in no time."

"Modest too."

"Humble." They grinned at each other again before Leeland moved back across the room and the pair of them headed towards the doors. To their surprise however, the doors slid close as soon as they attempted to leave.

"That's odd." Victor frowned and went to press the side panel for the doors to open. The controls were none responsive and he peered up at the control deck, but there seemed to be no one there.

"What's going on?" Leeland asked, his eye's scanning to where Victor was looking. "We're not locked in our we?" He asked, heart suddenly thudding inside his rib cage but Victor gave a firm shake of his head.

"Can't be. No ones scheduled in here today." He tried the control panel again with little look and it was then that the green mutant began to chew on the inside of his mouth. A noise erupted from behind the pair and the two teenagers peered slowly around their shoulders.

"Victor."

"Yes Leeland.

"You know you said about those nano things?"

"Ahuh."

"They don't turn into great big dinosaurs do they?" The two boys looked up and up as the panels floated and slotted into place by ease of a harsh red light. When they finished constructing, a thirteen-meter prehistoric reptile stared down at the pair. It took the creature a few moments to register what and where it was before it let out a harsh screaming roar that caused both boys to jump, slamming their hands across their ears.

They turned to look at each other and Victor quite promptly forgot everything he had ever been taught and screamed. Leeland followed suit, knowing no better and the Dinosaur did its own version. It bent down as low as it's neck would allow and let out another mighty roar in the two boy's direction.

**TBC~**


	4. Don’t Panic!

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 16/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 4:** Don't Panic

Walking down the corridor, Scott rubbed at his left temple and silently cursed whatever had attacked them on the way home. It was not a headache as such, but a dull pain reverberated in the side of his head from where he had been smacked against the control panel. Luckily for them, they had a healer amongst their motley crew of mutant children. He would see to that later when he had his students in class. For the time being, lessons were canceled. At least until he found Leeland and Victor but he presumed they could have not have wandered far. Besides, Victor was a sensible boy.

Along the way he passed the triplets who regarded him with a quick glance. "Evening Mr. Summers." They said in unison before making their way past him and he gave a frayed little smile at them. The girls unnerved him most days. He put it down to the fact that he was married to the woman they had been cloned from.

The subject of clones was once again upon his mind and it reminded him to check in on Logan. The feral mutant had taken his young charge, Laura, away for a few weeks. Being cooped up in the school could make both the Wolverine and his little clone temperamental and there did not seem to be enough space in the Danger Room for them to vent their anger.

First thing was first though, he had to retrieve the boys. Finding them, however, was proving harder than he first thought. There was some trust he had enlisted into Victor and he knew that the boy would not take the other one from the lower levels. It simply wasn't safe upstairs and though Beast made a very good point about keeping the boy's trust, he wasn't so sure yet.

Scott had grown up with danger at each and every turn. Having been a member of the X-men for the majority of his life, he felt that the suspicion and caution came with the job. There was simply nothing wrong with treating the boy like a ticking bomb. Just one false move and it was all going to blow up in their faces. However, if it did turn out that this was all setup, then perhaps a bomb was just what he needed.

"Darling, you look a little lost. You didn't hit your head too hard I hope?" Scott turned around and frowned at Emma for a moment before his expression softened.

"Victors showing Leeland around down here." He told her and it was her turn to frown.

"I thought I made myself clear when I told the little urchins to stay upstairs."

"Emma…It's Victor. Besides, there's nothing down here they can get into trouble with. I've put nearly everything on lock down anyway." He gave a roll of his shoulders as Emma leaned forward, pressing her hand towards his chest. "Now who's being a little bit paranoid?" She tutted before circling around him, her hands still pressed against his torso. Delicately, her fingers ran across the tight expanse of his uniform. Scott cleared his throat but a weak smile came onto his lips.

"This is serious. Hank seems to think I'm paranoid-"

"You are. Always alert Mr. Summers, what ever should I do with you." Pausing, Emma took her hands back and rested them on her hips to peer up at him. A smile came to her lips, one that would make even a nun blush and then drop everything and give herself to you.

"Are you even listening?" He asked her as she arched a thin blonde eyebrow up at him.

"We where attacked and we don't know by who. Non of the machines will work when he's around and this…this just feels weird and you're acting no better." Frustrated, that's what he was but her expression never changed even when he loomed over her with his sheer mass in muscle.

"If this is supposed to intimidate me, it's not working. To be honest, I used to pay good money to-"

"And there you go again!" Scott very nearly threw his hands up into the air in frustration but instead he settled for pinching the bridge of his nose.

"We can talk later." Said Emma, her tone changing suddenly, her eye's wide with some kind of fear. Scott looked at her but she charged past him and made her quick way towards the Danger room.

"Oh you silly boys!" Scott could her hear shout down the corridor as he moved to quickly follow her.

The prehistoric reptile regarded both screaming boys for a few more moments before it became tired of their terror. Great scales adored its pale gray skin and it's beetle like eyes blinked up at the bright lights that lay overhead. With a great swing of its tail, the creature attempted to topple both boys to the ground.

Victor was the first to jump backwards, kicking of his sandals to stick to the sides of the metal walls. His reptilian mutation gave him that advantage, but being able to walk across the ceiling would not help them keep out of the way of the creature that was steadily filling the room.

Pressing himself further into the corner, Leeland stared at the creature as it made its swoop for them both once again. Narrowly missing them, he held his breath and pleaded with his body not to let him wet himself. Then again, he supposed peeing his pants would be the least of his trouble if he were to be eaten by the creature. And that was it; he was going to be snuffed out by an animal that didn't exist in a room that didn't make sense.

As he closed his eyes, ready for the creature to snap him with its jaws, to gobble him down, he something tugging on his wrist. Without a second thought, he was pulled up into the air by his arm and when he opened his eye's he found that it was Victor and his tongue.

"Jesus!" Leeland exclaimed at the reptilian boy rolled his eyes and pulled him upwards by his dark prehensile tongue. Wrapping his arms around him, Leeland clung to the boy's back. Gritting his teeth as not to close his eye's in fright, he watched and waited for the animal to swipe at them again. Victor was exceptionally fast but now he had a dead weight attached to him and it proved harder to scrabble his way up the wall.

"God, don't you weigh anything?" Victor grunted between his teeth as he tried to reach across towards the observation desk.

"Well ah hardly think that matters right now!" Leeland shouted back. Of all the things to say in crisis and Victor had to go and choose that. On the plus side, there was not that much meat on him. Perhaps the creature wouldn't be interested in something that would loose a weight lifting contest to a chicken wing.

Emma reached the door to the Danger Room first but it did not open to her. When she tried the control panel, her fingers received a shock of pale green electric, stinging her extremities. Cursing, she pursed her lips to the side.

"Oh no you don't." It is to be said that Emma Frost had a great deal of power and amongst being one of the most powerful telepaths within a ten thousand mile radius; she was also quite adept with machinery.

But it did not matter how good she was with electronics, the doors simply refused to budge for her.

"Of all the technological advances the human race has made and we forget to stick on a good old fashioned lock and key. Simple. Why do we never go for the simple things?" She droned out to herself as Scott came to her side, shaking his head. "The emergency doors sealed as well and I can't get to the control platform."

There came a mighty roar from within and the walls around them began to shake. Whatever was in there with the boys was large and angry but she had faith in Victor that he wouldn't end up as a green smudge on the floor. Leeland on the other hand…there was a loud shriek and Emma rolled her eyes with a shake of her head.

"Where's Kitty when you need her?" Scott gritted his teeth.

Yes, thought Emma, our nonthreatening poster child Shadowcat', or 'Sprite', or 'Ariel' or whatever incredibly unimpressive name she was using these days, that's just who they needed. Unfortunately, Kitty was away visiting her parents and the closest they had to someone who could walk through walls was a girl who would crumble the surrounding area if she walked through it. As tempting as it was, Emma had decided using the children for destruction never won her any brownie points with them. This would have to be done the old fashioned way with just her and two other X-men. One of which was nowhere to be seen.

In fact, Beast had indeed heard the ruckus coming from the Danger Room and he had wasted no time in trying to collect his thoughts together with what he now knew about the boy. Oh a clever old thing was Beast and he wondered why he had not thought of it sooner. But he was only one man and surely he was not expected to come up with all the answers all the time.

First, he made he way quickly to the observation deck but found it quite hard to negotiate his way in. That only confirmed his suspicions as Scott had mentioned the total lock down. That meant know one would have been able to operate Danger Room no matter what level their mutation was. Perhaps, however, a very powerful technopath could…

Quickly, he made his ambling way down to the next level and came face to face with Emma and Scott who were still trying desperately to enter the room. Though they seemed to be having some form of heated debate and Beast cleared his throat. The pair stopped to look at him in the same manner as mother bears who had just found an unsuspecting hiker with her cubs.

"I think I may know what our problem is." He started.

"We know the problem Henry. The doors are locked." Emma frowned. "The problem is why it's locked?" She said through gritted her teeth, her pale hair sweeping in front of her eye's as frustration clear on her face. They would all be dammed if she lost yet another student to some stupidity of immediate school lock down!

"_He's_ doing it Emma." Beast frowned but resisted the urge to place his hands upon his hips. Frost was no imbecile; she would figure it out when her anger was not so contorted.

"You mean….Leeland?" Scott asked and Emma's reaction was to groan, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose in utter frustration. That was certainly no way her headache was budging now.

"Though I suspect he hasn't got a clue that it's_ his_ doing."

"Subconsciously running his fear through the machinery, including the DR." Scott mussed but Emma was the one to groan and very nearly threw her hands up into the air.

"Less chatting about it, more getting them out, hmm. Then you two can sit and talk about genetics over a nice cup of tea." Honestly, people really did need to get their priorities in order.

"What are we doing?" Leeland asked sheepishly, noting how Victor was steadily scrambling for the observation deck. Pressing himself closer to his back, he'd buried half of his face into his neck. The smell of clean laundry and coconut was what greeted him underneath the sweat of perseverance. Leeland presumed that he probably smelt like old socks, but he could worry about personal hygiene later when he wasn't about to trampled on.

"Well…" Victor grunted and shifted Leeland so his heels where not digging into his thighs. "There's an emergency power box on top of the observation deck…ahhh….Reach that, press the big red button and hopefully, ukk, all this should stop."

"You all right?" Leeland asked stupidly and Victor could only laugh in response. "Brilliant." Was his reply. "I feel terrific!"`

Though Leeland suspected that sarcasm might have been laced through his words.

The dinosaur was now trying to bash its double-decker bus sized head into the walls. It was trying to knock both boys from the wall, but Victor was determined that his hours of practice were going to pay off. Oh he was going to have blisters by the time they were finished but he was not giving up!

"So…It's not real?" Leeland seemed to be full of idiotic questions and it made Victor roll his eyes. "No, genius….uhh, it's the nano stuff. Creates whatever a person wants."

"Why the hell would someone want a Mapusaurus! Seriously, of all the stupid things-"

"-Wait a minute! How do you know what it is!"

"Uhh…ah did a project on 'em last year." Leeland said quietly with a frown and noted that Victor had stopped moving. Would it be rude to dig his heels in like one would do with horses, but he suspected Victor would simply shrug him from his shoulders and so he clung on harder.

"Leeland."

"Yes Victor?"

"You're an idiot." And with that, he began to scramble further up the wall until they reached the observation deck. The screens were pulled down but they did not need to see inside to reach the control panel. Unfortunately, they were a quite a bit up in the air and Leeland had a sudden attack of height phobia which he never knew he had before. Burying his face into Victor's shoulder, he breathed in his scent and let his hands cling to the front of his chest. Never before had he been in such close proximity to someone and it was causing his heart to race frantically.

"Reach up." Victor gritted his teeth together as he clung to the side of the jutted out ledge but Leeland shook his head in terror. "Ah can't reach."

"Yes you can! Just shimmy your body further up and reach over me. You'll only have to open the box and hit it with your hand, nothing too complicated." If Victor could, he would have slapped Leeland around the head but his hands where currently preoccupied. If it was just the button he had to press then he could have done it quite easily with his tongue, but it was never any good when it came to latches.

"I…I-I'm scared." The blonde whispered.

Victor closed his eyes and pressed his lips together before he turned his head slightly to the side to look at the boy, a small smile appearing on his lips. "I know Lee." His voice was softer than it had been moment before and Leeland peered upwards, two green sets of eye's meeting over their shoulders. The blonde nodded and started to do what Victor instructed him to do.

"Girls, are you ready?" Emma pressed her fingers to the sides of her own temples as the triplets did the same. If they couldn't get into the room, then they could do the next best thing. By forcing the boy to sleep, everything would revert back to normal, at least that was the theory. Unfortunately, Emma could not knock the boy out on her own with his pesky block hidden away inside his mind.

The triplets nodded. "Miss Frost." They said. "This may hurt him quite a bit."

Emma nodded; it was a chance they had to take. "He'll get over it." They closed their minds and focused solely upon the pale boy inside the Danger room. It was hard trying to pinpoint the boys mind for it seemed ever so scattered. They where able to hone in on Victor's mind in an instance, but they left him be and focused on the other boy.

A sudden rush of emotion hit the girls all at once and they gritted their teeth together. "Wait!" The called urgently but it was too late.

Leeland pressed upwards, stretching his body as far as it would go with Victor holding him firmly by his sharp little waist.

"There!" He successfully fiddled open the latch and smacked his hands against the button just as fog floated in front of his vision. "Huh?" At once, a pain shot right through the center of his head, causing him to shout out. It felt as if a hot poker had been shoved through his ears and scrambled about in a horrific little circle. Before he had time register anything though, his eye's slipped shut and he went limp in Victor arms.

The creature vanished with once last whip of it tail and a mighty roar. Victor wobbled upon the wall, Leeland's weight suddenly became dead in his arms and he could no longer hold onto the ledge. With his arms wrapped around the blonde, he slipped from the metal panels and plummeted to the ground below.

Though before his skull could become crushed upon the ground below, he felt great big arms sweeping him upwards and they landed with a soft thud on the metal ground below. Opening one of his eyes, he looked upwards to see Beast grinning down at him and he had never been so glad to see his favourite teacher. He still had his arms wrapped firmly around Leeland and had pulled him close to his chest. Once he had gathered his thoughts, he clenched his teeth together and pawed the boy off into his teacher's arms and moved to his feet.

"Whose genius idea was that!" He shouted at Scott as he came into the room, followed by Emma. The triplet hovered at the door, each one of them staring at the pale thing in Beasts vivid blue arms. The contrast was strange and it gave the boy an almost pale blue hue but it was not that that kept the girls at bay. The girls kept their distance, wondering if their suspicions had been confirmed.

Twenty minutes later they had Leeland back in the medical bay and this time Beast hoped his DNA machine would work.

"So he's a technopath?" Victor had gathered himself around the bed that Leeland was laid out upon. Now he was asleep, he could see his features more clearly. There seemed to be something troubled and contorted on his face and the green boy was sure that he had seen him some place before. Though that seemed a little silly and he looked up at Beast.

"Either that, or he's Omnilingualist." He had pondered on the idea for a while and it seemed more and more likely.

"What's that?"

"There is an active psionic translation field running inside his head. It intuitively translates any languages he'll come into contact with, whether it's written, spoken or indeed computer data. I suppose that would reach out to any kind of electronic machinery."

"Explains why I can't read his mind." Emma pondered from the side, her fingers tapping on the side of her chin. "Or why Cerebro refused to detect him. There's too much there protecting his mind."

"But we won't know until he wakes up."

"Yeah." Victor suddenly turned on his teacher. "About that!"

"Oh Victor don't start, you're going to give me a headache." She drawled out with a small roll of her eyes. "Putting him to sleep seemed to be the only logical thing to do at the time."

"But he'd pressed the reset button!" He exclaimed but felt a hand on his shoulder and his eye's met with Mr. Summers ruby coloured visor.

"Why don't you head up to the upper levels with the girls, I'm sure everyone's eager to know what he's like."

"Yes." Said Victor. "Because I can really comment on what he's like from ten minutes of him hanging onto my back and cowering like a little girl." He left the room without another word but gave a quick glance over his shoulder towards the boy. With a shake of his head he decided he would bi pass the common room; he had graves to visit.

The triplets didn't move. Instead, they gave Emma one sweeping glance before they decided to save the conversation for later. Then, they could interrogate away to their hearts content.

Emma had the distinct impression that the girls where annoyed at her, but what was new there. Before she could question them though, they followed after Victor and the medical bay doors slid shut.

"So what made him do it then?" Asked Scott as he perched on the side of the bed, looking down at the boy who was out for the count. Beast shrugged, it could have been for a number of reasons.

"Unconsciously of course. He's scared and has nothing familiar to protect himself with."

"So a dinosaur is his answer?" Emma shook her head, she supposed she didn't want to know and regarded the boy one more time before moving towards the door. He was starting to unnerve her and she decided to put as much space between them as she could.

"Where are you going?" Scott asked.

"To lie down. All this palaver has quite worn me out." When she left the room, the last little hold she has upon Leeland's sleeping pattern was broken and he gave a tiny stir upon the bed.

It felt as if a bus had hit him. That bus has then proceeded to run over him several times before the paramedics could reach him. Then, once he was in the ambulance, he had fallen out strapped to the bed and fallen down a great crevasse.

With a groan, he realised he was once again back in the medical lab with Mr. Summers and Doctor McCoy peering over him like a caged animal in the zoo. The boy was getting rather tired at being stared at like a panda and frowned up at them. When he did so, the pain in his head became worse and the nausea reached critical inside his stomach. With out a second thought he lurched upwards and spilt what little contents he had in his stomach onto the floor.

Hot sour bile collected in the corners of his mouth and he tried to spit the remainder of it out. "Uhh, sorry." He muttered, staring at the mess on the floor but Scott shook his head and patted him gently on the shoulder.

"Not to worry, Emma get's to the best of us sometimes."

"What 'appened?" He asked, pressing his bandaged hands to the top of his now pounding head.

"_You_ did." Commented Beast as a little machine moved over to the bed and began to clean up the vomit.

Leeland looked up as he wiped the back of his mouth and the older mutant handed him a glass of water from the side, which the boy drank down gratefully.

"You put the Danger Room on lock down with out meaning too. Created the Dinosaur from your subconscious and then couldn't think straight enough to get rid of it."

"Oh." Leeland felt his cheeks and ears burn with embarrassment and he dipped his head. Victor was right, he was an idiot and he had almost gotten them both killed because of it.

"So it was me?" He mumbled but Beast smiled kindly at him. "You're a techopath and perhaps a Omnilingualist."

"Better start learning to talk to people Kid, you're going to need it."

Beast explained to the boy about what he believed his powers to be and how they where mapped out. As well as the control of machines he would also be able to covert any language inside his mind but they were yet to test that theory. He also explained that perhaps there was some latent physic ability that was stopping the likes of Emma from seeing into his mind. For that, Leeland was grateful. He was not so sure he wanted someone like her inside his head. It was not like him to dislike someone after only knowing him or her for less than twenty-four hours but she was slowly moving her way into the pages of his bad book.

So now he was stuck down in the medical bay with no one but Beast for company. Victor never came back and Leeland didn't blame him. He was on his own with nothing but machines whispering in his ears, slowly turning him mad he feared.

xxx

Having threatened to throw Santo through an upstairs window, the other students had left Victor be. All he said, whilst slamming the front door, was that if they so badly wanted to know what he was like then they should dam well go and find out for themselves.

Out in the grounds of the Xavier institute, Victor zipped up his coat and made his little walk towards the graveyard. It was situated at the back of the school; a reminder of what life with the X-men was like. Paras's parents wanted him to be buried along side his friends who died in the bus explosion. They were proud of their son and his mutation and Victor wonder why all parents couldn't be like that?

If he had wanted to, he could negotiate his way around the graveyard with his eyes closed and it only took him a few moments before he found the tombstone with his best friends name inscribed.

"Hey." He said quietly, looking down at the smooth granite with the boy's name inscribed followed by his code name; Indra. There was a little space for his date of birth and the one that struck Victor, his date of death. Looking at it would make his heart race, his eye's water but if he kept crying then one day he wouldn't want to stop. Paras wouldn't want that and he supposed neither would anyone else.

"So I guess you've heard about the new guy. Yeah, he's ok. Scared, he's really scared and I was a bit mean. I want someone to blame P…not just the guy who, you know…" Victor gave a deep breath and blew it outwards, watching it mist up in front of him before he knelt in front of the little grave.

"I think he'll need a friend when Doctor McCoy's done poking at him and Miss Frost has stopped being, well…Miss Frost will never stop being like that but we can all hope, right?" He sat down on the wet grass and slightly grimaced at the moisture that his jeans began to soak up. At least he had changed into his trainers to venture outside.

"Kind of cute in a weird way, if you like twelve year olds. Suppose it's not his fault but there is something familiar about him but I just can't think what." Everyone knew that when Victor went to visit Paras, he would end up talking to himself. It was either that, or wandering around the institute muttering away to himself. The boy was determined that he was not going to go insane with grief, Paras wouldn't want him to. In fact, as pacifist as he was, the purple hued boy would have beaten it out of Victor if he could.

Resting his head in his hands, he regarded the gravestone in silence before a noise behind him made him turn his head upwards. The triplets stood there with their jackets wrapped around themselves for protection from the cold and soft pink scarves shielding their mouths.

"Victor?" They asked. "May we ask for your advice?"

Smiling, the boy nodded his head and pushed himself to his feet, wiping the dirt from his knees. "Sure."

"If you believed that someone was hiding the truth, would you want him or her to tell you?" Celeste asked first causing Victor to frown for a moment as he thought of a response.

"You mean, like lying?"

"Not quite." Commented Phoebe. "Just not telling people something that may be important."

"But what if they're hiding the truth to protect someone, wouldn't that be a good enough reason not to tell people." He asked with confusion, wondering what the emotionless girls were getting at.

"Thank you Victor." Said Mindee and the boy gave a soft smile and a nod of his head. "Not quite sure what you're thanking me for but you're welcome."

"Would you perhaps do us a favour?" They asked as one. "Be his friend, he's ever so lonely."

"Leeland?" He asked and the girls nodded. "We'd do it ourselves." They said. "But we have more important fish to fry." And with that, they bid him good evening and turned upon their heals to head back up to the school.

"Sure." Victor muttered as he watched them walk away before rubbing at the side of his head. Well, now he supposed that he had his orders and perhaps getting to know the new mutant wouldn't be so bad.

xxx

As she lay in her bed, Emma pulled the delicate sheets up against her arms and stared at the wall to her side. Of all the possibility's in the world. Of all the people who could be mutants once again, the first one to come about in a year and it was _him_. Why did she believe that none of this was going to creep up on her and bite her in her expensive ass. Her youth was going to haunt her and if she didn't play her cards right, everything was going to blow up in her face.

She buried her face in the pillows and tried her best to drown out the noise of her students and focused on the one little silence that wouldn't speak. Leeland's thought where blocked to the world, but she knew she get around it. After all, she was Emma Frost and there was nothing that child could keep from her.

The bedroom door creaked and footsteps padded across the expensive rug and a body moved into the bed next to her. Arms wrapped around her from behind and Scott pressed himself up against her, losing himself in her neck.

"What are you hiding from me Emma?"

Emma lay still and let her eye's close.

"Come back to me in seven hours when I've slept Darling."

"Then we'll talk?"

She stayed quiet and he felt her slip from behind and turn in the bed, the pair of them on separate sides.

"A girl needs her secrets."

**TBC~**


	5. Petunia’s

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 17/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 5:** Petunia's

"You'll have to stay down here tonight, what with still being high risk and all that. Not to fret though, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep anyway." Beast regarded the boy with a friendly smile and the boy returned a sheepish one in his direction.

"Sorry." Now he would feel bad for not letting the older mutant sleep, all because he couldn't be left on his own. It felt more like being someone's irritating child you had to baby sit for that the first new mutant in over a year.

"Nonsense! One can always find comfort at three in the morning with a good genetics book." The blue furred mutant was practically up in the rafters once again. Leeland mused about Tarzan flying through the jungle; it must have been a comfort thing. Different to what he was doing with the edges of his jeans and he supposed that soon all he would have would be loose string if he kept on pulling and picking at them.

"Yah know, two weeks unconscious 'as kind of made me restless. Want me to 'elp with anythin'?" The boy didn't want to become a burden but he was slowly starting to feel that way. "Ah'll even wash test tubes." He murmured though knowing his luck he'd break them and slice off his fingers.

"Are you sure you're not tired? It's been a bit of a rough day for you." Beast landed with a soft thud in front of the boy who was still sat crossed legged up on the medical table.

"Ah'm pretty sure." Nodding his head, he even made the point of slipping down from the bed. If he never saw another bed again then it wouldn't be too soon. Besides, having to explain to a complete stranger that a seventeen year old was afraid of the dark was not going to win him many points. Mentally adding that to his list on manliness, he looked at Beast with an eager face.

"I suppose we could always see how advanced your powers are?" The Beast suggested as he pushed his little spectacles to the top of his nose but Leeland frowned at him.

"Thought ah did that with t'thirteen foot dinosaur?"

"That was through fear. Controlling your powers and emotions comes hand in hand. With out you'll…well you'll be throwing your bed through the wall on a nightly basis." He declared with a beaming grin and Leeland made sure never ever to mention his past night terrors. With that in mind, he was starting to see why his father had placed him the hospital. Even as a boy, he'd never been very stable with anything he came into contact with.

The pair made their way across the medical labs and down a small flight of stairs that had been previously obscured from vision. They were metallic and chrome and their footsteps clattered upon them. It appeared to be a separate room only on a separate level to the medical lab. An almost smaller rounder version of the Danger Room greeted them. The boy stood at the foot of the stair well and looked about the room, watching as Beast moved towards the center with a sway of his arms.

"Were yah, yag know, born like that?" Curiosity got the better of him and he looped an arm around the banister of the steps, holding himself back from the center of the room. Beast turned to him with a raise of an eyebrow before he gave a slight chuckle and a shake of his head.

"Not quite, I was born with over-sized hands and feet, remarkable agility and superhuman strength. Just some of my very endearing personality traits." He said with an air of humour and it made Leeland grin from the sidelines.

"No, this happened a few years after I joined the X-men. Beast by name, Beast by nature and all that." Standing in the middle of the room, he extended his hand down and pulled at a small handle in the floor. With a small tug, a round table descended upwards and the mutant was faced with an entourage of keys and switches.

"But you're really smart, right? Couldn't yah like, make your'sen look…yah know…"

"Normal?" Beast asked and the boy nodded with a shy glance at the ground in the hopes that he had not offended the older mutant.

"No need to look so abashed Lee, you're not the first person who's asked me that. I did this to myself many years ago; with out realising that this would be the outcome. No, it seems I'm destined to live and die in this body, besides; it's given me an irresistible urge for Twinkies. I'm pretty sure a human shaped body would not appreciate that amount of sugar." With a smile, he began to type on the keyboard in front of him and Leeland watched with slight interest.

Leeland knew from experience that he was a bit strange looking, but not to the extent that he would shed on the carpet. Maybe his mutation was physical too but he hardly considered paleness an evolutionary revolution. This in mind, he regarded Beast and wondered why a man with so much intellect had to resort to swinging around the place like dyed ape. Somewhere in there was a whole book full of poetic irony.

"There we go." While Leeland was watching the spot on the floor in front of the table, little pieces of equipment began to materialize into existence. The boy had had no prior contact to being subjected to pieces of computer hard drives and mother board simply beaming into existence and he found himself standing back up on the stair well with his eye's wide. Licking his lips, he looked at Beast who could only grin at him, ever so amused that his invention had stunned the boy.

"How'd yah do that?" He asked, stepping down onto the metal floor, padding over towards the little piles of wires and random tools. Never before had something quite like the insides of a computer intrigued the boy but he knelt down to run his hand just above the little piles. There was nothing there, no spark of life that spoke to him and for some unknown reason this saddened the boy. As the thought struck him, an itch to fix everything suddenly hit him and he sat on the floor with his fingers scrunched up at his sides.

"The same way the Danger room works. By using nanotechnology to simulate. Of course it would be quite impossible to make something out of thin air, equivalent exchange and all that." He peered over at the boy who looked up at him with eager pale eyes. They reminded him of albino ratfish that was discovered off of an island in Washington State. Though he supposed the boy would feel a little insulted if he mentioned that. Noting his eagerness to put the machine back together, Beast took out his little notebook and pen.

"What…what'cha want me to do?" He asked with a little uncertainty.

"Well, put it together if you can."

"Er, I ain't too good with computers. Ah got kicked out of computer classes in high school 'cos they refused to work for me."

"There's no harm in trying." Beast urged and the boy shrugged. "Ok but if ah start makin' dinosaurs again…" With that he began to pick up the components and started to lay them out in sections around him. It was as if a door inside his mind had opened and suddenly he had access to all the information he would need for the task. It was rather like building a cabinet from_ Ikea_; you would need the instructions unless you wanted to be one wheel short off a shelf.

First he took the motherboard and pulled the computer case towards him and found the corresponding points that would allow him to screw the device into place. With out any wonder as to what he was doing or why he was doing, he took the CPU carefully in his hands and slotted it into place. Of course he realised that nothing would work correctly until everything was switched on. One he had all of the drivers in place he began to fit the cables and leads.

After a few minutes, the cuts of his hands began to sting but he pushed past it and worked on the task. The bandages did not prevent him from using his fingers, just grabbing anything with the full use of his palm.

Beast watched the boy as he completed the task in less than ten minutes without even stopping to ask whether or not he could have a manual to follow. Now he supposed he had competition when it came to machinery and wouldn't Forge be intrigued when he got word of the boy?

"Did ah do all right?" He asked, looking up from the completed case as Beast finished jotting down his findings.

"There's only one to find out." Placing his notebook down, he began to type into the device in front of him and materialised a mouse, keyboard and monitor. In front of Leeland, a plug socket appeared in the metallic table.

"Not goin' to get used to that." The blonde whispered as he began to plug in the little wires here and there before taking the plunge with the power adapter. "It's not goin' to work though." He shook his head and switched the power on at the socket before taking a small breath and scooting backwards. With baited breath he pressed his finger onto the power button on the tower and waited.

Nothing happened and there was no boot up sound of the computer.

Well that was that then, wasn't it? He could put something together no problem, but getting it to work…Now he knew how Doctor _Frankenstein_ felt before realising that he had to literally throw the body at a lighting storm. But Leeland knew that if he did that, he would most likely blow his hands off or something else incredibly stupid would happen.

The boy looked so beaten and down trodden and Henry found it hard not to feel sorry for him. "Well you got this far. If it's any consolation, you've beaten my own record." He said kindly and Leeland looked up with a sad little smile and shrugged his shoulders. "Bet yours turned on though." With a shake of his head he looked back at the computer and regarded it for a while before he reached out and patted its casing. "Just not meant-" There was a flash of pale green light that crackled from the end of Leeland's fingertips and he scrambled back in surprise.

The computer booted up with a whir and the monitor flashed with life. All at once an excited little voice filled his head.

_Hmm, where am I, what's this? Oh hello. What am I then and where have I come from? What's this whirring noise? Why can't I feel my legs?_

"Shh!" Leeland shook his head and scooted across the floor, tapping his fingers against the casing of the computer tower. To be perfectly honest, the shock had given him a fright. However the excited voice made him want to laugh and roll over on his sides. Oh this must have been just how _Doctor Frankenstein_ felt upon making his man, scared, amused, terrified and all together enlightened.

"Remarkable…" Beast peered at the computer, but it seemed he could not hear its ramblings of what on Earth it was. Leeland was reminded of a bowl of petunias and a whale but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why.

"Can ah switch it off yet?" He asked, still not quite used to the voices floating around inside his head and noting his discomfort, Beast nodded his head. Leeland Reached across the computer and pressed his finger towards the off switch at the socket.

"What's my name then and oh-…" It powered down and the boy patted it gently on the top of the casing like one would with a favourite dog. Feeling quite worn out, he rubbed the back of his hands into his eye's and tried his best to stifle the yawn that was making it's way through his body. Beast chuckled and sent the computer away with a few more clicks on the keyboard before pressing the whole thing back down into the ground.

"No point trying to fight it Lee." After helping the boy to his feet, they made their way back across the sunken room and up the stairs. The machines where still whispering inside his head but he was too drained to notice and wanted to do nothing but crawl into a bed and never get up again.

"You seem to have drained yourself, it happens to the best of us." Beast patted him on the back as he sat back down on the bed and clutched his hands in his lap. Sometimes Leeland was very good at pushing off sleep until the early hours of the morning when the sun was just creeping over and everything was cold. To bad there where no windows in the medical bay and only the only light source came from the soft overhead lights.

"Doctor McCoy?" He said quietly and Beast turned from his fiddling of one of the machines.

"If…If ah tell yah summat, you won't laugh will yah?" He chewed on the side of his lip and Beast shook his head with a kind smile. "Or tell anybody."

"What is it?"

He sat in silence for a few moments before his eye's wandered down towards his feet and it was remarkable how interesting his toes were. "Ah'm….ah kind of don't sleep very well. Well ah do but…I…Ah'm sort of scared of…the dark." He muttered and trailed off at the end and Beast had to step closer to him to hear what he said. But he leaned backwards and gave a small nod of his head before stepping forwards and patting the boy's shoulder. "No to worry, we'll keep the bigger lights on, hmm." And Beast looked at him, not with pity in his eyes but it was something close. It made Leeland want to turn away and scowl or laugh and say he was kidding but he wouldn't risk having the light turned off in a place he didn't know.

"I'm going to be right over there." He pointed to a little area behind glass that held a desk and a chair large enough to accommodate Beats size. It was his office and home away from home and Leeland gave a nod of his head.

Lying down, he pulled the covers from the end of the bed up and over his arms, pressing them close to his chin as his legs curled upwards into his chest. At home, his bed was a little longer to accommodate his giraffe like legs but the extra space only seemed necessary on a morning when he had uncurled from his protective position. Slowly though, his eye's became heavy and the once light sleeper could hardly remember what Beast had said to him before he promptly succumbed to sleep.

Henry watched him for a few moments to make sure he was sound asleep before nodding his head. Though when he looked at him he saw a scared little boy and frowned at what Scott had said about it perhaps all being a set up. There was certainly something odd and he had suspected that if Cerebro had indeed found the first new mutant, it would have been all singing all dancing. This was all a little too quiet for his liking but no matter what happened, there would be the boy in the middle of it all. That settled his mind; that he would watch the boy and would over seer any outcome that came his way. Mutant or not, he was still a child and if he was indeed a ploy or a puppet then who was pulling the strings and could they could they be easily cut?

xxx

Using his little black nose, a boy no older than twelve sniffed around the lower levels of the subbasement. Wild brown hair poked out from every direction on his head and almost devoured his silky brown ears that where pointed upwards like a Dobermans. Though Nicholas Gleason had the temperament of a chocolate brown Labrador and the coulouring to match. A soft brown fur lightly covered his body but other than the ears and the slight discoloration of his nose, the little boy was very much human shaped. Though he thought perhaps his little black claws needed trimming but there was no way of doing that unless someone pinned him down and brought the animal clippers out. That, he had decided, was never happening again!

"Nicky stop sniffing everything, he's not lost." Victor rolled his eyes and secretly wondered if he could buy the boy a collar and lead. That way, babysitting the child wouldn't seem so much of a chore.

"You can never be too careful, you told me that." Nicholas stood up and brushed down his trousers that where already covered in dirt from the garden. The boy liked to dig up the plants, to everyone else's dismay.

Victor smiled and shook his head before nudging the little four foot three child along the way.

"So what's he like?" Nicholas turned eagerly and started to walk backwards, confident that he would not smack into any walls like he used to before he practiced.

"Hmm. I don't really know." Victor admitted causing Nicholas to huff and fold his arms over his chest stubbornly.

"You spent all yesterday afternoon with him Vic, if you don't want to tell me then-"

"Nicky! I spent like an hour with him and we where running from over grown lizards."

This caused the little boy to stop and cock his head to the side like the confused puppy he sometimes believed he was.

"But…you're an over grown lizard." He said with a child's innocence and it took most of Victor's stamina not to clip the little thing around the head. "And you're a pile of fuzz." He told him with a grin, moving forward to ruffle his mass of hair before walking past him.

"Come on Wolfie."

Leeland had never slept like a log before and he had previously had some trouble in figuring what that phrase had actually meant. Though he had suspected it was nothing to do with his left arm going numb due to laying on it all night. With blurred vision he sat upwards and let the covers slip from his body. Tussled hair and a sleep flushed face peered around the medical lab and he unconsciously tried to look for Beast who was nowhere to be seen. Leeland signed and it was only then he realised that his stomach had been growling something chronic and he badly needed to pee. That aside, he was still alive and he mentally added that as an achievement to the list inside his mind.

There was a small scuffle near the door and Leeland presumed that he had spoken too soon. Biting down on his lip he watched as the door slid to the side and a small brown thing buzzed into the room in a small blur. It landed at the end of the bed with its hands pressed down onto the mattress.

Staring at each other, Nicholas was the first to speak as he blinked his beady black eyes at the boy in front of him.

"You smell like socks." He said matter of factly and Leeland added shower to his daily needs list.

"Doctor McCoy asked me too hang out with you." It was Victor at the doorway, his arms loosely hanging over his chest. He wore a pale brown t-shirt and matching khaki shorts with his sandal covered feet crossed at the ankles.

"Want to go grab some breakfast?" He moved into the room and pulled Nicholas back by his shoulder as the little thing had threatened to crawl up onto the bed in excitement.

Leeland nodded his head and tried furiously to brush his hands through his mess of hair, but it never stayed flat.

"Doc has to prepare for classes this morning, said you'd probably appreciate some one your own age showing you around. Plus erm…did you sleep in your clothes?" Victor asked with a small arch of a slim eyebrow and Leeland felt his cheeks burn before he could answer.

"They…they're the only ones ah've got." He muttered and Nicholas gave a small puppy like sneeze from the side. "It's not that bad!" Leeland exclaimed and the wolf boy snickered behind his hand before grabbing up Leeland's arm and pulling him from the bed.

"Wow, you're really tall. How tall are you? I bet you're not as tall as Santo but he's like a house anyway and Sydney too. What's your powers then 'cos I heard you blew up a school and that always happens to use. I've had a new room like three times since I was nine but it's cool 'cos I get to choose what colour it is. I'm Nicky." The little wolf babbled as he tried to drag Leeland towards the door and the blonde could do nothing but comply and look at Victor for help.

"Nicky, you're going to pull his arm off." Victor hurried after the small child and his new taller charge.

"Nice to meet you Nicky." Leeland found himself grinning down at the little boy who could only look up at him in wonder with a cheeky little grin. He turned to Victor as the three of them padded down the corridor.

"Sorry 'bout yesterday. Glad yah came back though." He started and Victor waved a hand at him. "Don't worry about it; we can all get pretty crazy with our powers." He nodded his head in Nick's direction. "Couple of years ago his anger got the better of him."

"Are we talking about that again?" The little wolf whined and scowled up at Victor. "I said I was sorry like ten freaking times!"

"What did he do?" Leeland frowned and the boy grinned up at him.

"It's nothing to laugh about Nicky; you almost gutted Havok in two."

"Yeah but…I didn't and he lived so that's the end of that story." Nicholas was still grinning up at Leeland who blinked and gave a nervous smile back.

"Go do something useful and take Leeland to the showers, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Nicholas nodded eagerly and started to drag the boy towards the sub basement washrooms whilst babbling questions away at him.

"So come on then, what can you do? And Leeland's a pretty weird name huh?"

"Uhh, yah can call me Lee. Ah'm…well ah'm good with computers…apparently. They sort of talk to me." He answered quietly and the little child looked at him with a semi disgruntled look. "You talk to computers?" He asked and Leeland nodded sheepishly. It took Nicholas a few moments to process what he had been told before his face lit up with a huge grin. "That is so cool! You could build like an army of robots!"

"Yah think?" Leeland asked as Nicholas dragged him around another corner and towards what he could only assume was the washrooms. They reminded him of a more advanced and better looking shower room from high school. Though no one used them there for fear of the pervy gym teacher leering on them. No one really believed it happened until they caught the old thing staring at them now and again.

"Only if you make me one though. But, what happened to your hands?"

Leeland looked down at the bandages on his hands and wondered how on Earth he was going to wash his hair with them on. If shampoo got into the cuts they would be stinging like mad for hours. He supposed it would be okie to just stand under the water…

"Cut them up pretty bad in the jet."

"I've only been in the jet a few times. The first time I fell asleep and Mr. Summers had to carry me inside, but I was just a little kid then." He admitted and Leeland wondered how much smaller the tiny boy was when he discovered he was a mutant.

"Here we go." The pair turned to see Victor in the door way with a small armful of clothes and he took a pair of blue shorts from the top and tossed them towards Nicholas.

"No way Victor, I had a bath like three days ago!" He whined.

"Yes." Said Victor, not looking at him but sorting through the small pile. "But two days ago you had training and this morning you were digging up the flower bed. Besides, no one will be impressed if you get fleas again."

Nicholas blushed beneath his fur and began to grumble. "That happened like once."

"And you gave them to Doctor McCoy who was less than pleased. Now scoot."

For a moment, Leeland was not sure the boy was going to comply but after a few moments of Victor not looking at him he rolled his eyes and moved towards the changing cubicles.

"I think these will fit you." Victor said, pulling a pair of black board shorts from his pile and handed them over to Leeland. His fingers brushed his bandaged hands and he placed the clothes down on a bench. "Doc told me you'd need these re bandaging." He began to unwind the white cloth that was starting to fray at the ends and Leeland stared down at him as he did so. When the first load of cuts where unwrapped, the rush of air made then sting and Leeland hissed. "Sorry." Victor muttered, rubbing his fingers around them gently, wondering in his head how deep they were but none of them seemed too serious for stitches.

He did the same with the other hand before looking at Leeland who had been staring at him intently. It was as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't and his freckle-covered nose lit up like a light bulb.

"I'll wash your hair for you." He said but Leeland shook his head so quickly he was surprised he didn't throw up.

"What? Were you going to just stand under the water for ten minutes and hoped that would do the trick? That may work for me but it'll end up greasy." Luckily he'd brought his own shorts. "And there are clean clothes there for when you get out. Wasn't sure of your size so I kind of grabbed the bigger ones."

"Oh, thanks." Leeland muttered and Victor grinned up at him, reaching up to ruffle his hair. "Don't mention it."

Ten minutes later and Leeland was sat on a small stool in the showers while Victor worked shampoo into his hair. To say he didn't have any himself, he was doing a remarkably good job. Nicholas was stood under one of the heads with his mouth open and tongue hanging to one side, giggling for all he was worth.

The blonde had felt more than a little underdressed and had not taken his arms from around his chest. It was even worse when Victor had appeared with a small six-pack in the making, staring at him like he would simply snap in two.

The clean water had stung his hands at first, but now it was more soothing than the suffocating wads of bandaging.

"So 'ow come he listened to yah like that? Ah know kids; they don't take anythin' from anyone if they're not at least ten years older than 'em." Leeland broke the ice of Victor slowly working his fingers into his scalp. Truth be told, he was starting to enjoy it and needed something else to take his mind away from it.

"I'm on babysitting duty this week. See, there are kids here who aren't old enough to look after themselves yet and the teachers…well, they may be teachers but they've never had kids."

"Neither 'ave you." Said Leeland and Victor nodded. "That's true, but I used to baby-sit back home before my parents sent me here. I know kids."

"When they found out you where a mutant?" Leeland asked.

"Nah. I've been like this since I was four. My camouflaging ability happened when I was about twelve and everyone in town was cool with me but…times change. Mutant menace and all that and my parents sent me here for my own safety."

"That's cool." Leeland gave a small nod of his head and watched as the warm water trickled down towards his toes. "That your parents still accepted you and all that." He muttered and Victor stopped washing his hair to peer around at him, resting his hands on his shoulders gently.

"Your parents not cool with mutants?" He asked and Leeland shrugged his shoulders peering at Victor through the small cascade of water. "It's just me an' Dad. Ah was too young to remember mum when she died." He said quietly and Nicholas's ears perked up.

"It's ok Lee, my parents are dead too."

"Nick!" Victor scolded.

"Well they are! Geessh…"

Leeland had to stifle a laugh behind his hands and gave a quick shake of his head. "No it's fine. Was a long time ago but…Dad's never been keen on mutants but…but ah don't think he'd 'ate me for it." At least, Leeland was sure his father wouldn't hate him. Was it really his fault that these powers had manifested?

"Well if it's any consolation, Dads carry the X gene. If he has anyone to be pissed at, it'll be himself." Victor squeezed Leeland's shoulder gently before trailing his fingers back up towards his hair for something to occupy his time with.

"Ah think my hairs clean." The blonde said after a few moments of silence and Victor cleared his throat.

"Yup." Victor said quickly, turning the showers off before reaching over to grab towels from the benches.

"Does everything here have an X on it?" Leeland mused as he was sorting through t-shirts and trying hard not to laugh at Nicholas who was currently stood under a hand dryer trying to dry off most of his fur.

Victor grinned and pulled his own t-shirt over his head with a small shrug of his shoulders. "I'm afraid you're stuck with the plain stuff for now, that's until we can go shopping or you're off the high risk list."

"Great." Leeland mumbled and settled for a plain blue t-shirt with a little X embellished in a circle on the arm. His hair had started to dry quickly in the warm air and it had slowly started to become fly away. Victor mused that in the light it looked whiter than it had done before but he supposed having it cleaned would have lightened it anyway.

"This place is…huge. Must have cost a fortune to build." He mussed as he crouched down to tie the laces of his trainers as Victor slipped his feet back into his sandals and nodded his head.

"I think Xavier must have piles of money hidden away in banks all around the world." Nicholas butted in with a soft shrug of his shoulders. "Like stuff his parents gave him when he was younger and he just stuck it in the bank to grow."

"I don't think it was quite like that." Victor said but Nicholas shook his head. "Come on, the guy was in a wheel chair, how else was he going to make all that money."

"He wasn't born in a wheel chair Nick; he was a professor of genetics. That's where all the money comes from. Besides, it keeps food in your belly and gives you video games to play with."

"Not complaining about that." Nick grinned and as if on cue him stomach growled and he rightly remembered they hadn't had breakfast yet.

"You said you'd make pancakes." With his hands on his hips he peered up at Victor and looked as if he would cry if the green mutant refused him.

"How can yah say no to that face?" Leeland grinned and he admitted that pancakes had never sounded so good.

xxx

In the staff room, Emma sat at the furthest end of the sofa and sipped at her coffee. All the while, she stared at the television without really taking in any of the information that the newsreader was spurting out. She supposed that fighting with Scott at seven in the morning had become a new record for them. Not that she was counting the time when Logan had thrown Scott through the window and they the decided to have a small brawl on the lawn. Then again, she supposed if she had done that with Scott then children would have enjoyed the fight.

Thinking about the children was what had caused them to fight in the first place. Now Emma was not fantastic with children, that was well known but there was a limit to some of the things Scott had suggested. Keeping the boy under lock and key seemed pointless and cruel but it was as if Scott was trying to entice something out of her. If he thought that being cruel to Leeland would make her spill anything, then Scott Summers had sorely misjudged her.

There was silence in the room when Scott moved over towards the little kitchenette and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, looking over his lesson plans for the day.

"Hank says Victor's watching Leeland for the morning." He said offhand without an inch of scrutiny in his voice. Emma barely raised her eyes from her mug. "So we're by passing the jail sentence?"

"Oh Emma don't start." The sandy haired man sighed and for the first time since stepping foot in the room did she look at him.

"I'm not sure who you think you're talking to Scott but I'm certainly not going to be spoken too like an annoying child." She placed her mug down on the coffee table with a thud and stalked out of the room. He noted her hair was done up on top of her hair with neat little white hair clips. Her suit of cream trousers and jacket matched and he noted how that wasn't in her usual work attire.

After a few moments she came back and grabbed up her purse, her cheeks ever so slightly pink for forgetting it.

"Well…?" he asked her and she rolled her eye's in his direction. "I came back for my purse."

"Where are you going?"

"Out. I don't have a class scheduled until this afternoon." With that she stalked from the room once again leaving Scott to muse with a scowl. Oh she was hiding something but coaxing it out of her, well that was going to take a lot of hard work.

xxx

"And then these robot guys in suits came at me and were like going to burn down my foster home with me in it and that's when Chamber kicked down the door and saved me but…I was kind of scared, being only little and thought he was one of the bad guys too." Nicholas was tucking into his pancakes with so much enthusiasm that Leeland had wondered how he had not choked on his food.

"Who's Chamber?" He asked and Victor raised his folk to the air with his arm resting on the table. "Think of a fire breathing dragon in human form, that's Chamber."

"Yeah…" Nick sighed. "To bad he's back in England now, he was cool."

"He's English?"

"Ahuh, but no like you. Your voice is funny."

Leeland couldn't help but snort into his glass of milk before he gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "I'm from the North, Yorkshire-"

"Like the puddings!" Nick exclaimed.

"Is that all yah think about, food, lad?" Leeland laughed and pulled of another piece of fluffy pancake and dipped it honey.

"Ah live near York, a little village just outside it. That's where New York get's its name and erm…well there's this great big church in one the towns near me and it's got Washington's crest inside it. That's where the stars and stripes come from."

"Really?" Victor asked and Leeland nodded. "Yeah, took history in high school…failed it but ah remember some things."

"But you talk really funny." The wolf child was well known for being blunt but that didn't stop Victor from feeling embarrassed about it. Leeland only found it amusing though.

"Ah'll try and talk less funny for yah, kay?"

A few moments of giggling from Nicholas followed and Leeland was starting to relax ever so slightly. At least he had two friends in the school and he knew that that was better than none at all.

"So…Is this him then?" A voice boomed around the kitchen and it caused the blonde to blink a few times before he looked over his shoulder. He was met with something, or someone, who was the same height as him but nearly six times as wide as him. The boy's entire body was covered, or at least made from, rock.

"Whoa. Didn't expect you to be so…" Julian poked his head around Santo and started at Leeland who scowled back at him.

"What?" he asked but he felt Victor patting him on the side of the arm with a small shake of his head.

"Guys, this is Leeland. Leeland this is Santo and Julian…they're not that bad." He admitted but the blonde had the distinct impression that Santo was quietly summing him up.

"So you're the kid we've got to risk our lives for, huh? Well phew because here I was thinking I was going to have to put my neck out on the line for a guy I've never met." Santo fairly sang and Leeland felt his ears and checks burn with sudden discomfort.

"Kid, take it from me. You'll dead by the end of the week, just saying is all."

"Santo don't be an ass." Victor scowled but the rock mutant shrugged his large bolder like shoulders and moved to sit in one of the reinforced chairs.

"Best to get these things out of the way first so he knows what he's up against. Come on spill it, what are your powers then?"

But Leeland only stared into his pancakes before he suddenly lost his appetite. Getting up, he slid the chair out from underneath the table and moved over towards the kitchen archway without a word.

"Great." Victor huffed as he too got up from his seat. "Thanks a lot Santo. You really know how to be a jerk, don't you?" He too moved from the kitchen and hurried after Leeland, calling his name.

"Dude, that was a _bit_ harsh." Julian said quietly, chewing on the side of his lip.

"Just telling it how it is."

"Yeah but did you have to go mention the whole being dead thing in front of Vic." Julian knew how tactless Santo could sometimes be but he was never intentionally cruel on purpose. This time though, he had pushed the comfort level.

"Oh…" Santo muttered and a look of guilt washed over his stony face. Nicholas growled from his seat and pushed his face as far into Santo's as he could. "You better start sleeping with one eye open _Rockslide_ 'cos I have paints that you can't remove from you big stony butt with turpentine."

Leeland ignored Victor's pleas to slow down but his long legs could carry him quite far without even realising it. With his arms wrapped around his chest, he refused to let himself cry or be bullied into crying. But it felt like high school all over again when he was picked on for being quiet and weak. Only this time, there was a real threat of being killed. The rock boy had been right; they should not have been expected to protect someone they didn't know.

In his hurry through the grand decorated school he accidentally barged past a girl in a long black dress. When Leeland stopped to mutter an apology, the string of words that left his mouth where not quite English.

The teenager in the dark niqāb and abaya stopped wide eyed and turned towards the unknown boy who had stormed past her.

"Excuse me." She called in her native Arabic and Leeland stopped for a fleeting moment, peering over his shoulder at her. Her face was completely covered except for her dark eyes and Leeland pressed his lips together as he turned to completely face her. Her long black dress came to the floor and it hid any hint of curves that may have once been quite notable on her body.

"_Sorry. I didn't mean to barge into you_." She continued to stare at him with wide eyes and he wondered for a fleeting moment if he had done something to offend her.

"_You speak Arabic_." Said the girl and it sounded more rhetorical than an actual question but Leeland shook his head as the only thing he could hear was a string of beeps decoding themselves in his mind so he could understand them. It was strange and he was still getting used to it.

"There you are. Geeh you run fast for a stick." Victor came up behind the covered girl and pressed his hands to his thighs to gain his breath back.

"Leeland this is Sooraya." Apart of him was growing tired of introductions and he wondered whether or not Beast could just do it in one of their classes later. Surely he was allowed into the upper levels for more than a fleeting breakfast.

"Is everything all right?" Sooraya asked the boy in clipped English, sounding concerned. Leeland held it together though because crying over little things would prove how much of a weakling he felt right then.

"_I'm fine_." He replied but the look Victor gave him made him frown and brush his hands through his fly away hair.

"How are you doing that?" He asked.

"_Doing What?"_

"What did you say?"

"_I said; Doing what?_"

"Leeland…what are you doing?" Bemused he looked at Sooraya and then back to Leeland.

"_Victor stop it, this isn't funny_." Leeland scowled as the girl cleared her throat.

"You are speaking Arabic." She told him but Leeland frowned at her and shook his head with a arch of an eyebrow. "_You guys clearly don't know much about the British. We suck at learning languages, there's no way I'm speaking Arabic_."

"Ok, really didn't understand that." Victor gave a nervous laugh.

Stumbling backwards, Leeland felt his heart hammer away in his chest and he looked from one set of eyes to the other.

"But you are." Said Sooraya kindly as she tried to step forward, but the boy only pushed himself backwards before he stumbled and landed on the ground in an awkward heap. His hands smacked down on the hard wooden floor and sent pain racing through his un-bandaged cuts causing him to hiss out in pain. The hiss turned into something more pathetic and before he could stop himself he began to cry. Clutching his knee's to his chest, he buried his face in his jeans and wished he were back home.

Victor wasn't sure what to do; the last thing he had expected was the boy to start crying again. But he knelt down next to him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders and simply held him. He wasn't sure if words would be enough to make him stop but Leeland was petrified and no one was yet to make it any easier for him.

"Way to go Santo." Nicholas hissed up at the rock covered mutant from the door way and the boy looked marginally sheepish.

"I…Ah want to go 'ome." Leeland sobbed and mumbled into his knees, refusing to show his face.

"I know…I know." What else could he say to him?

Scott watched as the events unfolded from the safety of the surveillance room down in the lower levels. He knew that look of terror and fright on the boys face; he used to see it everyday when he was younger on the faces of mutants were now no longer around. Dropping his arms to the sides he sighed and looked sideways at Beast.

"We need to talk to him." He said and Beast nodded his head, pushing his spectacles further up his nose. "I have the results back from the blood I took from him last night."

"That computer task you set up knocked him out cold?" Scott asked as Henry frowned, flicking through his little notebook. "Hmm, he'll have a long way to go before he can master it but the results…well I'm not quite sure you're going to like it."

"Why?"

"There are traces of Methylphenidate, Ritalin, in his blood stream."

"Don't they give that to kids with ADHD?" Scott asked with a frown as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"It can treat a many number of neurological disorders but if memory serves it's also a base line product of _Hope_." The two mutants looked at each and then peered back at the boy on the computer screen and Scott took everything back he had originally stated about him.

"So someone is trying to cure his mutation?"

"In the tiniest of amounts, yes…Scott, I don't believe he's a new mutant. I think he's had these powers for longer than two weeks."

Looking back at the security monitor, both mutants observed the sobbing boy. Together they wondered on what possible secrets they had stumbled upon.

**TBC~**


	6. Deep Thought

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 17/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 6: **Deep Thought

Victor took Leeland away from the prying eyes of the few students he had already met. As luck would have it, it was still quite early and many of the other X-kids would still be fast asleep. With that in mind, he still risked taking him up towards his own room.

The room itself was a soft green colour and the walls were adored with photographs of friends and family and there were posters of bands and various male actors'. The curtains were opened, the bed was made but there was the usual laundry piled in the corner and homework piled on the desk.

Sitting on the bed, side by side, Leeland was trying to stop crying. His head was starting to pound and he was feeling so low that it seemed nothing was going to pull him out of it. Running his hands over his eye's he took a deep breath like a five year old would when they sobbed and Victor had never felt so sorry for someone.

"I..ah know ah…Keep sayin' it…" He said between hiccuping breaths. "…Sorry."

Victor smiled though and squeezed his shoulder before reaching under the bed and pulling out a box of tissues, which he handed to him. Gratefully, Leeland took a couple and wiped at his eyes and nose before resting his head in his hands.

"It's hard." Victor started, staring across the wall towards a small picture he had of himself with his arms wrapped around a purple hued boy with a shock of bright red hair. It had been summer and they both grinned innately at the camera without a care in the world, it was just the two of them. "You think you're the only one going through it and…It doesn't seem to matter what anyone else has to say because…" He sighed and shook his head as he turned with one leg up upon the bed. Leeland had brought his long legs upwards towards his chest, wrapping his arms around them with his head resting upon his knees.

"We all go through something different. Nicky lost his parents and that seemed higher up on his list than his mutation and this kid Josh, his disowned him. You start to think being a mutant is the worse thing in the world but you have to try and find the good things too. If I wasn't a mutant I wouldn't have met this guy." He licked out over his lips as he reached forward towards the wall and took his picture. Cradling it in his fingers he sat back down.

Leeland looked down at the photo and smiled before peering back up at the green eyed mutant. "A bit younger than me, he was fifteen and erm…Paras, he's called Paras."

"You look happy." Leeland said quietly, his voice to hoarse from sobbing.

"We were." Victor said as he stared intently at Paras, knowing he was never going to hold him like that again. "It hurts because if I wasn't a mutant, I'd have never met him…"

"But…where is he?"

A silence filled the room and it took Victor a few moments to look up at Leeland, fighting back his own stupid urge to cry. "Gone…P's….gone."

Leeland nodded, he knew what those words meant from asking about his mum when he was little and after that, he'd never asked again. Those words hurt so much more than being told someone was dead. Gone gave them a purpose and a personality and it meant they would never be coming back.

"Look at us, biggest pair of girls goin'." Leeland grinned through his sobs and made one final attempt at drying his red and puffy eyes. Victor grinned with him and nodded his head.

"Feel any better?"

Leeland shrugged his shoulders and pressed his hands towards his temples. Fingers began to dance across his skin and knew from the nausea setting into his stomach that he was going to suffer from a migraine attack.

"My 'ead's poundin'." He said with a little laugh, trying to take the serious edge from the conversation.

"Do you get headaches a lot?" Victor asked and the boy nodded as the green mutant got to his feet and began to rummage around in his desk drawer. "I've only got paracetamol and aspirin up here but I think the medi-lab will have something stronger like co-codamol."

The blonde nodded his head gently and he supposed if they ran into Beast he could always ask if they carried the tablets his own Doctor back home had prescribed him.

xxx

"What colour did you say they were?" Victor called from the cabinets in the medical lab, pulling out little drawers and peering into tiny offset cupboards.

"Blue." Leeland replied from the bed but his headache did not seem so bad when he surrounded himself with the whispering machines. They seemed to crowd him and his favourite of them all was the arm like device with its chrome plating. It seemed to have a mind of it's own and was the most vocal of them all.

_I live down here, Doctor McCoy made me. Are you going to be our new maker? None of the others talk to us?_

Leeland could only smile and reached over to pat it like one would do with a dog. The throbbing moved slowly to the left side of his head and he winced in pain as it pulsed across his eyes. Closing them he groaned and leaned back into the pillows with his arm shielding his face from the overhead light and tried to will the nausea away.

With his mouth feeling dry he leaned onto his side to reach for a glass of water but his heart began to beat rapidly inside his chest. That made him sit up and wince, his fingers itching at his sides and he realised he needed his insulin injection.

Fortunately Beast had left him a little supply on one of the surfaces in the lab and he slipped from the bed with a wobble of his legs.

Victor looked over his shoulder and a look of worry passed his face. "Lee, what are you doing?"

"Tryin'…ah need my insulin."

"Lay back down, you look like crap."

"Thanks." Leeland let out a small laugh and Victor smirked at him as he fetched over the syringe, a bottle of insulin, and an alcohol wipe.

"Get back on the bed; I think you're burning up."

"Ah'm fine, just need my shot and my pills an' ah'll be fine." But Victor was having none of it and stood with his hands on his hips until Leeland grumbled and sat back up on the bed.

"Better?" He asked with an open palm gesture but the green mutant only tilted his head to the side and frowned at him before something softer crossed his features.

The pale skin surrounding Leeland's eyes where darker than the rest of his face and it made him look so very tired. He seemed physically drained and even his hair appeared limp. That was nothing compared to the boy's body and Victor had wanted to wince when he had him in the shower that morning. It was not as if he was just skinny, that wouldn't have been a problem. Heck, he had wondered that if he hugged him would he gain a paper cut?

"Can I ask you something?" Victor looked serious but his features where still soft. Nodding his head, Leeland took his diabetes medication and gently he rolled the bottle back and forth between his hands to make sure the contents were mixed together.

"You're really sick aren't you?"

That had surprised Leeland but he tried not to let it show on his face and instead he gently shrugged his shoulders. Opening the alcohol wipe he swabbed the top of the bottle before measuring the correct units out with his syringe.

"Lee?" Victor leaned forward and rested his hand next to the boy's thigh, peering up at him as he refused to look at him. Shrugging he gave a tiny laugh. "It's nothin', Ah've been like this for years…Ah'll live." He said quietly and masked it all with grin that didn't reach his eyes.

Inserting the needle into the rubber stopper of the insulin bottle, he pushed the plunger to inject air into the bottle. It helped to draw out the insulin better. Turning the bottle, needle and syringe upside down was child's play, a skill that had not left him since he was little. He tapped it then took the needle from the bottle and lifted up his shirt, grasping it with his teeth as he wondered were to puncture this time. It didn't hurt anymore. Just a dull pulling as his muscles tightened at the invasion of the foreign body and then nothing. It relaxed as if the needle was a part of him and he pressed the amount into his body.

Victor watched him do this and he wondered whether he could do it with his eyes closed. It was strange watching something that fairly reminded him of a junkie shooting up in a back alley but he kept that too himself.

"I um…I could only find Co-codamol, will they do?"

After taking a couple of pills the pair of them sat back on the bed whilst staring at the ceiling. A silence had passed between them and Leeland wondered if it was something he said or done, or perhaps it was something he hadn't done.

"Go on." He said. "Yah can ask."

Victor pushed his head to the side and for a moment he wondered what was running through his new friends mind but he was smiling and staring ahead as if in a world of his own.

"There's a lot of stuff I want to ask, really." He admitted and frowned at himself. He'd been doing that an awful lot of late and if he wasn't lucky, he'd need weekly Botox injections like Miss Frost. Not that he would ever say that to her face…

"Then ask me, Ah'm an open book." Leeland turned his head too so they where both facing each other, the blonde peering down at the carapace headed boy.

"So…It's just you and your dad then?" It was not what he had wanted to ask but it was the first thing that spilled from his mouth.

"Yup. Dad's pretty neat though. Ah'd say he were't best Dad I've ever had, but ah've only got one."

"What's he like?"

"Big." Said Leeland. "Like, built like a brick shit 'ouse. He's about my height but when ah was little, ah used to think he was either a wrestler or, ah dunno…A secret agent or an assassin."

Victor looked at him as he was about to tell him he really was all of those things until he laughed. "He's an accountant. Ah don't really look like him but 'e says ah look more like my Mum anyway…I wonder…I wonder if he's looking for me, yah know? Mr. Summers and Miss Frost did sort of kidnap me ah suppose."

Victor shook his head at this. "But…Doc said something about them taking you from a hospital."

"Erm…yeah. Frost sort of terrified them all an' they just let me go."

"Then…by law, because you're a mutant he's given up all parental rights over you. I bet anyway day now you'll get one of them assigned as your guardian like Nicky."

"I…Pardon?" Leeland frowned and Victor pushed himself upwards to sit and turn with his legs crossed on the bed. "You didn't know…did you?" He asked. Leeland shook his head and pressed his lips together.

"It means you're under the X-men's protection until your twenty one. Even if your…If your dad finds you, he can't take you from here. I'm sorry Lee, I thought you knew." Victor said quietly at the end but the blonde only stared of at the wall before closing his eyes and pressing his lips tightly together.

"I'm eighteen in a month…A legal adult in the UK and now ah've got to go back to school an' ah can't drink until ah'm twenty one. Fantastic." The boy sounded more irritated than upset and Victor patted him on the shoulder.

"Look on the bright side, you can still have sex."

Leeland fairly choked on his spit, he cheeks suddenly burning with embarrassment as Victor jumped down from the bed and gave a quick glance at his watch. "Crap, I've got class in five minutes, you want to tag along?" They avoided each others gaze but Leeland nodded and wobbled as he tried to jump down from the bed. It was one thing to think about it but he hardly expected Victor to come straight out with it.

"So…So you're gay right?" He asked offhandedly as they headed down the corridor.

"Yup, how'd you guess?" Victor grinned up at the six-footer. "Why…?" He suddenly asked, his eye's narrowing slightly, his mind racing with all kinds of answers and replies the boy could give him.

"Oh no reason…"

xxx

Emma peered at the clean cut man sat in front of her and wondered for a fleeting moment why she had given him up. Of course it had only been an arrangement when the two of them had not been dating on a public level. After all, Tony Stark had a reputation and she had a school full of mutant children. What would the parents have made of that…

This morning though she had business with the billionaire and if she was to trust anyone, it would be him.

"I thought you could find anybody in the world Emma, why's this one so special?" Tony peered over the photograph that Emma had handed to him over one of his grand coffee tables. It was of a man in his early forties with short sandy hair cut close to his face. Well built and tall, Tony could have easily mistaken him for a superhero without their elaborate costume. The only thing that swayed him from the opinion was the child at his side.

The photo was clearly taken without their consent on a busy street somewhere he couldn't pin point. The boy was no older than ten with pale hair that newborns tend to sprout, also cut short to his head. Clearly tall for his age, he clutched at the mans arm who he could only presume to be his father with eye's that looked almost white.

"Because he's good at hiding, always has been." Emma had settled herself back into the leather sofa, her legs crossed at the knee as she sipped from her delicate coffee cup.

"And the boy?"

"The photo's at least eight years old; the boy's a mutant from the school." She said casually but Tony smirked at her and shook his head of close cut dark hair. The little mustache and goatee of his seemed fairly animated on his face.

"Cut the bull Emma, I've got files on all the kids at Xavier's…He isn't one of them."

"He is now."

"You mean…a new mutation?" Tony leaned forward as Emma gave a light shrug of her cream suited shoulders. "That's debatable…"

"Now you're being secretive, why should I help you?"

"Call it a personal favour Tony."

"Only if you tell me what's going on Emma."

Emma was quiet as she sipped her coffee and peered around Tony's office. Stark Enterprises was blooming and the Iron Man had a nice neat little thing going on with his alternate alias. Oh there was speculation as too who the Iron Man was and it was very much public knowledge that it was Stark himself. However any news paper that printed such knowledge, the writer soon found themselves working at burger king.

"Does Cyclops know about that little arrangement we used to have when neither of us were dating?" He asked casually and Emma could not help the smile that crept onto her face.

"Oh, Scott knows everything, Tony. He can't keep secrets from my telepathic mind, so it's only fair that I don't keep anything from him." They stared at each other across the table before Emma gave a tiny bored sigh and placed the cup and saucer onto the neat little tray in front of her.

"I did something very silly when I wasn't old enough to know any wiser." She said simply and the scrutiny left Tony's face for a few moments before he nodded his head.

"Never thought you'd be the type Emma."

"I'm not." The White Queen took up her purse as she got to her feet. "You'll find him then?"

"I'll do my best but…may I offer you some advice." They looked at each before Tony continued. "I'd come clean if I was you."

Emma tried to hold back the laughter but she thought it was a bit rich of an alcoholic telling her she should come clean.

"You know me Tony, all in good time."

No, Emma had made her bed long ago and now she needed to set the record. Besides, when she got her hands on Williams Senior, she was going to strangle him.

xxx

"Victor ah'm not so sure about this. Maybe ah could just wait down stairs for yah." Leeland was nervous but you didn't need to be telepathic to see that.

"They're not all like Santo, Lee. Come on, what's more fun than science class."

"Ah could think of a few things. Chinese water torture..."

"Oh now you're being silly, come on." Victor grinned and pulled on Leeland's arm ever so slightly to get him moving. The blonde would have liked to have dug his heals into the ground but Victor out weighed him with sheer muscle.

They were the last two to reach the science room and the blonde was trying his best to argue with Victor that he simply was not good with new people and he would much rather meet them all later. However, their whispered heated debate had carried towards the class full of children and when they reached the door they were met by silence and everyone had turned in their seats to see them.

"Yeah, that would be him." Santo was the first to speak up in a reinforced seat near the back of the room.

It was a normal classroom with everything Leeland could remember from his science classes. The students sat on raised stools with small islands in the middle complete with sinks and gas taps for bunsen burners. The only thing out of the ordinary were the children themselves.

There were about ten of them, not including himself, Victor and Beast stood at the front of the class.

"So glad you could join us Mr. Borkowski." He looked up and blinked too see Leeland stood with him looking rather out of place and nervous.

"Ahh Leeland, are you joining us?"

Leeland shook his head so quickly that Victor was surprised he wasn't sick on the floor. "Yes he is." Victor grinned up at the blonde who only scowled at him with gritted teeth as he was pulled into the room and towards two empty seats.

Everyone's eye's where on the blonde and his cheeks where slowly turning more pink the further into the room they padded.

"Ah yes, introductions are in order I feel. Class this is Leeland Williams, he's come to us from England." Beast beamed from his position near the desk; unaware of how nervous Leeland was, sat in his seat with his hands clutched in his lap.

There was the Muslim girl he had bumped into not an hour before and unfortunately he couldn't meet her eyes. Julian was sat near the back with Santo as three identical blonde girls stared at him with emotionless faces. There was something eerily familiar about them but for the life of him he just couldn't think what.

Two Japanese girls sat near them, one of them with shocking blue hair and metal gauntlets running up the length of her arms. Leeland was finding it very hard to listen as they had started chattering away the moment he entered the room. The look on the girls face made it clear that she couldn't hear them and he was hoping to whatever cruel God was out there that he wouldn't start talking to them.

A girl with copper red hair and skin like liquid metal sat next to a dark skinned boy with silver tattoo's laced across his body. His t-shirt covered the majority of them.

Even though they stared, they smiled at him and Victor nudged his arm ever so slightly with his elbow. They looked at each other for a moment and the boy felt his nerves melt away. He brought his hands up to rest on the wooden surface of the desk.

"Now where were we? Ah yes, evolution and environment." Beast turned and pulled down the white board, reveling an intense jotting of notes upon the surface.

"Now then…Darwin's theory of evolution explains how species of living things have changed over geological time. The theory is supported by evidence from fossils, and by the rapid changes that can be seen to occur in microorganisms such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Many species have become extinct in the past and the extinction of species continues to happen."

"Like us." Julian said from the back and Beast nodded. "Quite right Mr. Keller, but next time put your hand up."

"We know he studied wildlife on the Galápagos Islands and that the finches on the different islands were fundamentally similar to each other, but showed wide variations in their size, beaks and claws from island to island." Beast paced in front of his desk, tapping his chin as he went.

"For example." He continued. "Their beaks were different depending on the local food source. Darwin concluded that, because the islands are so distant from the mainland, the finches that had arrived there in the past had changed over time. Now having to adapt to surroundings brings me to our main point today with is our mutations. Can they be viewed as genetics or environment, nature over nurture?"

Resting behind his desk, the Beast rested his paw like hands upon the polished wooden surface and surveyed his students. "Let's take…Victor for example."

The green mutant turned his head and frowned for a moment before he nodded and Beast made his way over to him. "Now this is all of course, just a theory. We've yet to prove it what with the current crisis."

Santo put his huge rock like arm up into the air. "How far away are we from becoming Dodo's?" Julian snickered at his side but Leeland thought he raised a rather good point, despite reminding him of the boys he used to go to school with.

"To go the way of the dodo, is the phrase you're looking for Santo. Technically organisms with a 40 percent cut in their population numbers are known as Endangered. The mutants suffered a near 90 percent loss so we're on the critical endangered list. However, as a sub species of human it's debatable whether or not we fall onto either list."

"But…" Said the metallic coloured girl. "There's only two hundred or so of us left when there used to be millions, surely that means we qualify for the endangered species list." She frowned and poised her pen in front of her notes.

"Unofficially Cessily, we are on the list. But as a sub species of Homosapiens we don't really count. There used to be a handful of groups of prehistoric men, each one of them capable enough of evolving into the dominating species. If it were not for the rise of homosapiens, then mutants would have never evolved. We are a new subspecies and we intend to stay that way." He smiled at her and she nodded her head, scribbling down on her notebook. Beast turned back to Victor.

"Now then Mr. Borkowski, how long have you been green?"

"Since…I was four."

"And when did you powers develop?"

Victor thought about this before frowning. "Erm, I must have been twelve or thirteen. Just started middle school. The only mutant and all that…Kind of felt out of place."

"And that's when your camouflage ability manifested itself, because you wanted to hide away?"

Victor nodded and then shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't bother me anymore but back then, I just wanted to fit in."

"Don't we all."

"Professor." The three girls said at once and Beast turned towards the triplets. "If that's true, would that not mean we where all capable of hiding away. Many of us do not like our appearance or indeed our powers."

"Like I said girls." Beast chuckled. "It's yet to be proven."

Leeland thought that Beast made an excellent point but he didn't think it could work. After all, he certainly would have never have willingly chosen the power over electronics considering his past with them. TV's would blow up, computers would refuse to turn on and he didn't even want to think about the incident with the electric pylon. Though thinking about it made him wonder…If he had such a bad history with appliances and suddenly he could talk to and eventually control them, didn't that mean he had had his mutation far longer than two weeks?

But he decided that was nonsense and instead he focused his attention on the worksheet he and Victor had to fill out.

The class was enjoyable, and it was certainly nothing like Leeland remembered when he was fifteen. The students seemed more at ease and there was a level of calm, which Leeland put down to the small number. Nicholas wasn't there, but he remembered how young he was and that he probably had separate classes.

When they were clearing up to leave an hour or so later, it seemed that a few of the students had been waiting to speak to Leeland. But Santo got to him first.

Strolling across the room, he came face to face with Leeland and the blonde did his best to try and stand his ground. The room was silent for a few moments before he stuck his great rock appendage out towards the British boy.

"I'm urm…sorry about this morning."

Leeland let out a relived sigh but shook Santo's hand regardless. "No problem. But you're right."

"I..I am? About what?" The Rock mutant asked with a tilt of his head.

"That ah shouldn't expect you guys to watch out for me."

The Asian girl with bottle blue hair shook her head and had half a mind to slap Santo. "Is that what this big doofus told you? We're the X-men, near enough, and we look out for one another." She glared up at Santo with gritted teeth before turning back towards the blonde.

"I'm Nori, this is Hisako." The other Japanese girl had dark hair pulled back into a loose ponytail and she wore more traditional clothes compared to Nori. Her shocking blue hair stuck out like Leeland's and her vibrant clothes made the blonde wonder if she hadn't just stepped into a palette of paint.

"Cessily." The copper headed metallic girl smiled and referred to the silent boy next to her. "And the big quiet one is Nezhno.

"We have already met." Sooraya bowed her head gently and Leeland pressed his lips together, the metal of his piercing digging into the soft flesh. "I'm really sorry about early."

"What happened?" Asked Nori.

"It was nothing but I am glad that you seem happier."

Leeland nodded his head, the remnants of his migraine pulsed at the back of his mind but he was good at pretending they weren't there. As Nori rounded on Sooraya to tell her what happened, Leeland noticed the triplets at the back of the class, quietly conversing with Beast before they turned to look at him. Before, he thought the girls look cold, distant and emotionless but something sparked in their icy blue eyes.

"…So if you touch anyone, you can speak their language?" Nori had been speaking to him and Leeland had been staring off into space. Quickly, he looked back down at her and stammered for a moment.

"Well ah'm not sure really…maybe."

"But you talk to computers and people? You should work in a call center." Julian offered and very nearly didn't dodge Victor's harsh nudge in the ribs.

Nori and Hisako looked at each other before glancing up at the tall blonde.

"Leeland, may we try something." The bottle blue girl asked and the boy shrugged his shoulders, wondering what the two had in mind.

"Nori what are you up too?" Victor asked as the two Asians leaned forward and brushed their fingers against the blonde's arms. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and Santo rolled his great stony eyes. "I wonder what David would say to you touching up the new guy Norkio." He teased but the girl glared at him so hard that he was sure electric was going to shoot from her eyes.

"Er…" Leeland shuffled his feet and pressed his lips harder together. All of a sudden, he felt like a caged animal that was being observed until it did a decent enough trick to make the audience applaud. Well the blonde was having none of it and kept his lips sealed.

"Come on Lee." Victor urged with a soft smile and Leeland wondered how he could resist someone asking so nicely.

"_Please don't make me do this again_." He said quietly in Japanese causing the students to fall into a stunned silence.

"And you've never spoken Japanese before?" Hisako asked, her accent was more clipped than Noriko's and Leeland shook his head.

"_Never. The closet thing I got to it was _Pokemon_ when I was a kid_."

"I got pokemon there." Julian said with a sure nod of his head. Stepping forward, he began to circle around the British boy, tapping at his chin with a nod of his head.

"Manipulation of computers, electronics and the ability to communicate with any number of people. Guys, I think we bagged ourselves a good one."

"He's not a horse Julian!" Victor exclaimed and took hold of Leeland's elbow as he dragged him towards the door.

"I agree." Nezhno spoke up for the first time and peered down at his teammate with a shake of his head before walking past their little group with his book bag strapped across his shoulders.

"Man, what did I do _this _time?" Julian fairly groaned as Cessilly patted him on the back with a look of disdain on her face, or perhaps it was pity.

The green mutant paced down the corridors in silence, his hand still loosely wrapped around Leeland's arm. The blonde didn't really mind though and it gave him a few moments of quiet to take in the surrounding areas. The school itself was beautiful with ornate wooden paneling that ran along the walls in strategic lines. There, embellished in carved wooden circles was the infamous X symbol that Leeland mused that it must have also been printed on the toilet paper. That was something he would have to check later.

"Victor, where are we goin'?" Leeland finally asked though he was not sure whether his voice was back to normal. However, if touching people made him speak the language then surely with Victor clinging to his arm he'd be certain to understand him.

"I'm..I'm not really sure." He admitted with frown and turned with an apologetic look upon his face. "I didn't mean to drag you away from everyone, you where getting along with them. Sorry about that." He frowned and then looked very surprised that he was still clutching the blonde's arms and pulled his hands back sheepishly.

"Well ah haven't met everybody yet so…ah'll run across 'em again." Was his reply and he felt ever so conscious of where Victor's hand had been placed but the corridor they had wandered down grabbed his attention.

Framed photographs littered the walls from nearly the top to the bottom and Leeland stepped forward to peer up at some of them. The first one he came across was the old X-men team that he remembered from the news when he was little. Professor Xavier was the first one he recognised of the batch, sat in his wheel chair looking ever so proud of the students who stood around him. Beast looked fairly human and next to him was a boy no older than Victor constructed of ice. Cyclops looked as if he had had better nights sleep back then with his arms around a pretty red head he didn't know. Behind them, flying his like his name suggested was Angel, his good looks clashing with the spandex uniform of blue and yellow.

The blonde smiled at the photo and wondered what it must have been like to be that first batch of superhero's that paved the way for many more to come.

"Our uniforms got a heck of a lot better." Victor piped up from his side pointing towards a frame on the opposite side of the wall. Turning, Leeland grinned seeing what could only be Victor's old team and teammates. He stood in the middle, the second tallest in a uniform of grays, black and red that showed off the muscles he already had defined at such a young age.

"I was team leader for the Alpha squadron. There's only me and Alani left now…" He pointed at the shy looking girl stood next to him, her tanned body adored in what appeared to be red tattoos.

Leeland looked down at Victor, watching him as he stared up at the photo. A smile crossed his lips though and he gave a small shake of his head as if something was terribly funny.

"What?" Leeland asked, a smile creeping into the corner of his mouth.

"It's nothing but…Most of us on the team were gay, including both our advisers."

"Really?" Mused Leeland. "Wow the mutants 'ave come along way in not segregatin' the gays an' all that."

Victor snickered behind his hand before grinning up Leeland and it changed into something softer, making Leeland look down at his trainers for the umpteenth time that day.

"Thanks for hangin' out with me this mornin' an' yesterday…minus the dinosaur."

"You're welcome. The dinosaur was pretty cool despite trying to eat us." Victor admitted and they grinned at each other.

xxx

"I've called everyone back." Scott surveyed both Hank and Emma across the war room table, the later busy staring of at a near by wall.

"A full house." Emma yawned. "Wonderful but I'm not sure what having three more pairs of hands are going to do around here. I've got Stark doing us a favour, he should have Mr. Williams whereabouts before the week is out." That did not give Emma very long to priorities and figure out what she was going to do. However, she was getting rather good at wiggling out of tight spots.

"Good." Said Scott, though it was clear that there was still some strain between the pair and Beast cleared his throat. "What did the others say?"

"Well Kitty and Petey are going to grab the first flight out and Logan…well. Words I won't repeat but Laura thinks she may know something."

That perked Emma's ears up and she glanced around until her eye's met with Scotts.

"About the Ritalin cure. Seems it was used by many of the high ups to make sure theirs or their children's mutations were never found out about. But it's fatal and can even cause death in some serious cases."

"They call it "kiddie cocaine" and for good reason." Beast frowned. "Long-term Ritalin effects have been linked to brain development abnormalities similar to those found with cocaine use. The human body can't tell the difference between cocaine, amphetamine, or Ritalin so all the affects are the same."

"A junkie. He's a junkie without even knowing it." Emma fairly gritted her teeth but did not let the anger seep onto her face. That would have to wait until she found William's Senior.

"That probably explains why he's so twitchy and nervous and skinny to boot. It'll be doing a number on his immune system and I'm sure it's not helping his diabetes. I don't know if he's on any other medication though."

"Doesn't he have migraines?" Scott asked and Beast nodded his head.

"Did Laura say what these pills looked like?" The furred mutant asked but Scott shook his head. "I'll call Logan, get him to ask her. In the meanwhile, we should get him back down here for his own safety more than anything."

"We should tell him." Said Emma as she raised herself from her seat and looked at her two team mates. "He has a right to know."

"That he does but…we don't know how he's been taking the cure or whose been giving it too him." Beast knew that the last thing they needed was a child with unstable powers upset at the knowledge that he'd been drugged; nobody wanted that to happen to them.

"The only conclusion I can come up with is the father, that's why he's scarpered. So we need to treat this with care. Henry, what do you suppose we do?"

The war room was silent as Beast frowned down at the table before he looked back upwards, a solemn expression on his usual happy go lucky face. "Without the drug, he'll go through withdrawal…Cold turkey. Once we get the information about the drug, we'll ask him and then we'll tell him."

"And then?" Emma asked.

"Then Emma, we let him decide what he wants to do. He's not a prisoner here, he's a fellow mutant that'd been lied to for a good portion of his life."

xxx

Two days later Leeland was back pacing the medical lab. The day before Victor had introduced him to nearly everyone he could find and now thanks to a hyperactive pink haired girl with wings, he could speak Welsh. Megan was fourteen and had almost flown into him when she sped around the corner. No harm was done though until Nick had bounded around the corner after her and the three of them had landed in an award dog pile.

So he had a small bruise on his elbow but that was not why he was pacing the labs like an expectant mother cat.

"Will you sit down, you're going to wear a hole in the floor." Victor frowned over the top of his book but it seemed Leeland had not heard him. He was restless and agitated and could barely sit still long enough to eat something. It had worried the green mutant but Leeland seemed the kind of person who didn't want to be fussed over.

Rubbing his eyes, Leeland shook his head before wringing his hands in front of him. Though he didn't know why he was so nervous but he was very sure it was to do with the teachers acting strange in front of him, acting as if he was a ticking time bomb that was going to blow up any moment.

Beast had told him to wait down in the medical room, that they had to ask him a few questions. But when he asked what these questions were about he wouldn't tell him and fairly shooed him away.

"Questions." Said Leeland. "Ah didn't know there would be questions. Ah'm not good with questions Vic. Nearly didn't get into college 'cos of the bloody questions but ah don't suppose it matters now and-AHH!" He fairly jumped when Victor reached out and touched his arm. Looking around he watched as Victor gently wrapped his fingers around his wrist and pulled him down to the bed.

"Sit." He told him firmly, making him sit next to him. Moving his fingers down, Victor's hand rested over the top of Leeland's longer fingers. The paleness of the blonde's fingers contrasted with the dark vibrant green of Victors and they both stared down before Leeland cleared his throat.

"Tulips." He said, making Victor arch one eyebrow as he looked up at him. "We look like tulips. You be the stalk, ah'll be the weak little flower on top."

"You're not weak." Victor laced his fingers around Leeland's, stroking his thumb over his little finger with tiny caresses. Leeland looked up and shrugged, his eye's meeting the others. "Yeah…but you're stronger than me." He said quietly.

"I've been at this longer, takes time."

"What if Santo's right, what if ah don't 'ave time."

"Don't listen to Santo, what does he know? You're safe, we'll keep you safe and you'll learn about your powers."

"You're nice Vic…really nice but, we don't know what's around't corner or what's goin' to 'appen, to any of us. I…Ah wanted to finish college, to go to university and be a painter but…now." He sighed and squeezed their hands gently together. "What's t'point?" He leaned back against the wall and closed his eye's, both exhausted and wide-awake. Honestly, he didn't know whether he was coming or going.

It didn't take him long to fall to sleep, to catch ten minutes or so before the onslaught of questions that he knew he would not know the answers to. For a fleeting moment he thought perhaps someone had brushed past his cheek. Even stranger, he thought perhaps they had kissed him but he couldn't be sure.

**TBC~ **

_**emjeeoay:**__ Glad you mentioned the Harry Potter books. Think of Neville and Professor Lupin in the film's, you have a Yorkshire accent_.


	7. Must Be Thursday

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 18/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 7:** Must Be Thursday

When Leeland awoke it was to the sound of mumbling voices and a soft tapping on the side of his cheek. Upon opening his eye's he noted the shoulder he was slumped on and hoped to God he had not drooled on Victor. Looking around, he frowned at Beast who stood in front of him with his hands resting upon his knees as if inspecting him.

"Sorry I had you wait so long." He said straightening up in his dark coloured suit, which was complemented by a bright red bow tie.

"No probs…" Leeland rubbed his eye's with the back of his hand and sat up with his shoulders slumped and his legs hanging off the bed. Now he had cramp in his hip from the awkward position.

Victor, it seemed, had not slept, to busy keeping his eye on Leeland. Making sure he did not fall out of the bed or do something as equally stupid. Of course, he would _not_ mention that over the hour he had ran his fingers through his pale mess of hair and semi attempted to tame it into something neater.

"Victor, don't you have homework to be getting on with?" Beast told the green hued mutant who merely rolled his eyes and slipped from the bed.

"I'll catch up with you later Lee." He mumbled.

"Wait, why can't 'e stay? Ah'm only gonna tell him everythin' later any 'ow." The blonde admitted with a shrug of his shoulders causing the Beast to look from boy to the other before rolling his eyes.

"If you're sure" He asked, his eye's scanning back to Leeland and the boy merely shrugged.

"'Course ah'm sure. Not that ah 'ave any clue what'cha you're gonna ask me but…sure." He looked over his shoulder towards Victor, hoping he would stay with him and that it hadn't prevented him from trying to wriggle away from him.

"That's if yah ain't got nowt else to do." He asked on the offhand but Victor shook his head and raised his hands to rest behind his head.

"Then it's sorted." With a wobble, Leeland managed to slip from the bed without falling and disgracing himself on the floor. Counting that as an achievement for the day he walked along side Victor into an unknown part of the lower levels.

"Would you have really told me if I hadn't been able to tag along?" Victor questioned quietly as the pair of them followed Beast down the long stretch of corridor. Without a moment's hesitation, Leeland nodded and tilted his head to look down.

"Yup." There were no buts, or ands, or any kind of justifying his answers, in Leeland's mind it was quite simple. No matter how long they had known each other, in his mind they where friends. No one else had stuck with him for three whole days so it seemed like the correct thing to do. Besides, if question time turned out not to be a happy event, then he would have someone to count on when he felt as low as could be.

Though that thinking alone made Leeland wonder if perhaps he was depending a little too much on Victor. However, the green mutant seemed compliant and he hoped he was not just tagging along out of politeness.

They made their way towards the war room and Leeland decided that that name alone was not a good sign from the next few moments to come. Didn't names like that give off bad omens? Well he had half a mind to turn the other way but one reassuring glance from the boy next to him made him smile and turn the other cheek.

The room was metallic like all the rest with the off set of technology embedded into its very core. In the middle of the room there was a large round table with the usual entourage of X-men sat around it. There was Emma and Scott of course but there were also three people the blonde was yet to meet.

A woman who could not have been ten years older than the two boys sat with her mousy brown hair pulled up into a ponytail upon her head. Stray hair fell around her cheeks making her look younger than she probably was. Next to her sat a man whose sheer size and stature reminded the blonde of his father; tall and built to immediate. Lastly, there were no prizes for guessing whom the small gruff looking man was, sat with his shoulders hunched and his arms wrapped around his chest.

The boy was not quite sure what to do with himself. It was very rare that he had so many peoples attention upon him and in the last few days he had enough to last quite a lifetime. And so Beast took it upon himself to introduce the first mutant since M-day in the only way he knew how.

"Everybody this is Leeland, Leeland this is everybody. Kitty, Peter and…Logan." In response, 'everybody' either gave a smile, a slight raise of the hand or in one instance a gruff hello. At least, Leeland was pretty sure it was hello and not just the small hairy man clearing his throat.

Sitting down, the boy glanced at his side towards Victor who smiled at him and made him feel even more nervous. Now he knew if he slipped up or made a fool of himself, Victor would know. Now he was regretting in asking him along, as he wanted to appear quite sane to at least one person in the institute.

"First things first." Scott spoke up when the others had taken a seat. "Why are you here Victor?"

Victor's shoulders slumped and his cheeks turned a very distinctive dark green. He could have said something along the lines of not having much else to do as all his teachers where cavorting downstairs, but kept his lips firmly sealed. "…uh…"

"Uhh, I asked 'im to come." Leeland spoke up though his voice was quieter than he had expected. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "I asked 'im to come with because…well. Well…uhh." Faltering he licked his top lip and gripped his fingers into the top of his thighs. There was a niggling behind the back oh his eyes and his legs had started to twitch. With sweaty palms he looked up and gently tilted his head to the side.

"Why does it matter if he's 'ere?" Was this questioning so bad that the other boy should be sent away? What could they possibly want to ask him?

"I'll go." Victor muttered and went to rise from his seat but Leeland kept his gaze with Scott. There was nothing in his eye's to suggest intimidation but a faint look of wonder. The look of a scared little boy without a friend in the world and the mean man was going to send away the only one who seemed bothered.

Scott was silent until the eyes of everyone else turned towards him. Clearing his throat he gave a small wave of his hand at Victor. "Sit back down Victor, you can stay."

"Right then, first order. Sorry for making everyone rush back but we thought it was best with the current situation."

Leeland presumed that the 'current situation' were himself and he felt his shoulders slump down. He wondered how far down in the chair he could slide without being noticed. Cheeks tinged with embarrassment he found his eyes glued upon the metallic surface of the tabletop. They wandered and saw that Victor was fiddling with his own hands, watching the fingers interlace. Now he was transfixed upon his mottled green skin instead of paying attention.

"I've put the school on the red alert for the time being, which means none of the students are to leave and no one is to come to the school. At least not without our prior knowledge. The jet was attacked-"

"You better not have scratched it up Summer's." Logan barely raised his eyes towards Scott who gritted his teeth and replied as coolly as he could.

"It's fine, Logan. There was a situation but we dealt with it."

At this point, Leeland glanced at the crisscross of scabs on the palms of his hands. They where dark and crusty, the deeper one's had began to peel. A boy named Josh had offered to 'heal' his hands for him, but Leeland was still getting used to talking machines. People who could cure illness and injury? Well, he would deal with that when he had dealt with himself.

"How are your hands?" The woman, Kitty, spoke up and it took Leeland a few seconds to realise she was talking to him. Looking up he pressed his lips together and gave a quick nod of head. "A-huh. Ah mean, they're fine, thanks." He smiled and rested them on the table.

Kitty nodded her head and leaned forwards in her seat, pressing her hands against her thighs as if she was inspecting a small child. "You're older than you look."

"Er, thanks."

"Yes. Yes." Emma started. "This is all fascinating but can we get to the point." She turned in her seat abruptly, clearly annoyed at the mousey brown next to her. Kitty scowled but it went unnoticed apart from Peter gently patting her on the arm with a sympathetic smile on his kind face.

"Leeland…" The platinum blonde started, her pale blue eye's level with the boy's own. "Think back to when you were younger, did anything out of the ordinary ever happen to you?"

Leeland stared at her but she held his gaze. A look crossed the boy's face and he leaned back in his chair with a small frown.

"Out of the ordinary 'ow? Yah mean other than my Mum dyin' when ah was a baby. Bein' poked an' prodded as a toddler an' oh yeah, the various CAT scans over the years just in case there was a tumour hidin' in my 'ead. Other than that…" He said snappily, a dark scowl creasing his forehead.

Pursing his lips to the side he began to think back. There was nothing odd about Leeland other than he appearance, which he was starting to blame on his mutation.

"Didn't you say the occasional TV or computer wouldn't react to you?" Beast cleared his throat, seeing as how Emma was silent again. Not that she had taken her gaze from Leeland, but it did not seem as if she would be speaking to him again.

"No." Said Leeland. "They blew up." He added quietly and glanced at Victor who was watching him intently, as if trying to make his mind up about something.

"There was…no, it doesn't matter." Shaking his head, he frowned. "Hmm, maybe it does." Sitting up and fiddling with the sleeve of his borrowed hooded sweater he cast he mind back to when he was small enough to hide in cupboards. It was a memory long forgotten about, something that didn't seem so important to an eight year old. Something he had wanted to forget about.

"I think it was summer. No, it was summer. I was eight, I think, playing in the fields at the back of our village…"

_August 1996  
The North of England_

The summer of 1996 saw the rise of girl power and men singing of space at school discos. A buxom in hot pants and a tank top with more firepower than she needed ruled the gaming world. Toy's came to life, baby's crawled on the ceiling and wearing a union flag was deemed 'fashionable.'

However, for two little boy's, none of that really seemed to matter.

They lived in a village where nothing exciting ever happened, surrounded by nothing but fields upon fields. It was the middle of the six-week summer holidays and they tried to string out the days as long as they could before they would head back to primary school for the new term.

"It's gonna rain." Leeland groaned as he stared out of the window of his living room. Both he and Brian had been placed in front of the television with juice and biscuits but neither of them was interested in the cartoons flaring from the set.

The pale little boy looked over his shoulder at his dark haired friend. Both head's of hair were shaved close to their heads as not to over heat in the summer sun. No one took little ones to the hairdressers, not when a pair of clippers and Brian's mum was the cheaper option.

"Yuh." Brian crawled across to the windowsill where his best friend was leaning and placed his hands against the panes of glass. "But it ain't 'alf windy." As soon as the words left his mouth, the two boys turned to each other with big identical grins on their faces.

"KITE!" They both declared.

The boy's were not supposed to leave the living room and they certainly were not allowed outside. So, tip toeing past the kitchen, the taller of the two rushed down the hallway of the bungalow and snuck into his room. With trainers strapped to his feet and the multicoloured box kite under his arm, the tall child ushered his friend into his bedroom. Living in a bungalow had its advantages and the two opened the bedroom window as far as they could and slipped out side.

At the back of the garden, and next to the pond of koi carp, was an old fence, which Leeland's father had been planning to fix all summer. There was a sizeable hole that two eight year olds could quite easily fit through.

"Akk, ah'm stuck!" Brian gritted his teeth, not as thin and waif like as his younger friend. Leeland giggled as he crouched on his long legs and pulled the other boy into the backfield of golden wheat. It brushed across their legs and the smaller of the two was lost inside it.

At four foot eight, Brian Sier was the smallest boy in his class. It rather annoyed him because his Dad had been rather tall and he hoped one day to be as big as he had been. Or at least as big as Leeland who hovered a good three and half inches above him and refused to stop growing.

"So what's yah mam's new boyfriend like?" Leeland asked casually as they hacked their way through a farmer's lively hood with little or no regards for his business.

"He's not 'er boyfriend! Mam's too old to 'ave a boyfriend, they 'ave 'usbands an' she already 'ad one of those." Brian snapped, pursing his lips to the side. Stamping on the poor stalks of wheat made him feel that little bit better as the wind began to pick up around the pair.

"Hmm. Daddy never got married after my Mama went to 'eaven." The quiet boy mussed and Brian scoffed as they worked their way past another set of fences into the next field along.

"There ain't no 'eaven, told you that before. Dad went into t'ground with dirt shoved on top of 'im. That 'appened to your mam too."

"Really?" Leeland asked. Every time he asked his Dad about what had happened to his Mama the man would mumble something about being busy and offer his son cake or sweets. That always kept the little boy quiet, as he was not supposed to have too much sugar. So the more he asked about his Mama, the more treats he got. But he was ever so curious. Brian was the smarter of the two, at least Leeland thought so and so he believed him.

"Really. Now 'urry up or we'll never get it up into t'air!"

Unraveling the kite, Leeland held onto the string as Brian prepared to run across the disused field. Last year it had been full of bright green stems that slowly turned golden. It was used to feed the horses in the stables at the top of the village, but this year there was no hay. Instead, the field was unused as so the soil could gain back its nutrients. The perfect play ground for two bored little children.

"Least yah get to visit your dad's grave." Leeland said with a small shrug of his shoulders and Brian frowned at his taller friend.

"That's 'cos he's buried near enough next door! Your mam died in Ireland, stupid. That's like, I dunno, the other side of the world! Now stand there, am gonna run."

Leeland did not think he was that stupid, or that Ireland was that far away but Brian seemed to know everything. So he grinned and nodded his head, holding on tight to the end of the kite string.

Beginning his run, Brian held the box Kite high above his held and threw it as high as he could up into the air. Taking his cue, Leeland began to run backwards, watching as the blue, pink and yellow mass was swept in a current of wind and suspended high above them for a few moments. Both boys began to grin and laugh and Leeland slowed his running down as not to trip over the loose soil and over grown plants.

Dark clouds began to circulate above them but neither paid any attention to them. It was only when a strong current of wind whipped across them that holding the kite become more of a chore than a bit of fun

"Uhhk, I…Ah think it's a bit too windy Bry." Leeland gritted his teeth but an unannounced roar of thunder made the eight-year-old squeak and let go of the kite string.

"Lee!"

"Ot oh…" The two boy's watched as their kite fluttered away in the breeze, across the top's of the tree's before landing in the field across the road. Unfortunately its string became tangled up in the heavy-duty cables of a set of electrical pylons.

Well that was that. Brian threw his hands up in the air with a great groan of frustration before letting them rest on his hips. "Well, that's gone."

Leeland gritted his teeth and started to move towards the road and after a few moments Brian followed after him. "Lee, what'cha doin'?" Brian frowned as he trailed after his taller friend, the tall weeds whipping past their legs.

"If Daddy finds out t'kites missing, he'll know we've been out an' then he'll kill us. Or worse, ah'll get grounded." Leeland was not prepared to take that chance. Besides, he was good at climbing tree's so why would a pylon be any harder?

"But…But that police man came to school last year. 'E said it was dangerous to go anywhere near 'em, like rail way tracks." There was a soft whine in Brian's voice but Leeland rolled his eyes. As smart as he believed his friend to be, he could not believe how gullible he was.

"As long ah don't touch t'cables then ah'll be fine." He grinned over his shoulder at his dubious young friend before sliding down the small bank and onto the warm dirt covered road. It lead up to the near by farm and old carrots had fallen that day from the top of open wagon trucks. Up the other bank they trekked towards the looming tower.

The blonde could not be sure just how tall the Pylon was but it certainly out grew his father, whom Leeland had decided was a giant anyway.

"Leeland don't!" Brain called as he stopped at the edge of the field but the blonde only rolled his eyes and stubbornly kept on walking. Brian had always been the one to do things first, scared of nothing…usually. Now it was Leeland's turn to be brave and cool and climbing the tower seemed like baby's work.

Starting in the corner, he placed one trainer clad foot into a gap and his hands on a beam above him. Pulling himself upwards was no problem, but the vertigo did start to get to him after he was about half way up. Now the little boy could see past the trees and even his own house.

"Cool…HEY BRY! IT'S FINE!" Leeland shouted with a grin, his arms wrapped securely around the steel pole. Thunder rumbled near them and six seconds later, lighting flashed some distance away.

The blonde's heart began to thud in his chest and he licked his drying lips. Now he really had to get a move on and make his way quickly to where he could grab onto the string of the kite. It was just a little too far out to reach but if he just hung a little further out then it would not be too difficult to grab onto.

The thunder roared again and three seconds later lighting flashed across the dull gray sky. Leeland let out a terrified cry, palms suddenly sweaty from the fear that raced through his body. But he was determined not to panic, and to retrieve his kite.

Brian bit the inside of his cheeks, his hands clasped in front of him in worry. If Leeland were too fall and hurt himself, then they would be in so much trouble. He was supposed to look after Leeland, make sure he never got hurt.

"I…I'M GONNA GET YOUR DAD!" He shouted up at the now tiny figure nearly on top of the pylon.

"NO DON'T!" Leeland shouted back, but Brian was already retreating. "BRIAN KWON SIER! IF YOU TELL MY DAD, IM GONNA PUNCH YOU!" Leeland screamed from the top of the pylon and Brian seemed to take note. It did not stop him from looking terrified, however.

Another rumble and the sky flashed a second later. The storm was so close now that Leeland was very sure he could taste it on the back of his tongue. That thought in its self was peculiar and caused him to frown. Stretching, he took hold of the kite string and yanked it as hard as he could.

However, the thunder crashed loud above their heads and with it came the lightning. There was no time to think, no time to scream as the bolt struck the tower and with it, the boy. It threw him forcefully from the pylon, causing him to spin in the air for several moments. Pale light engulfed his body and for a moment of two, Leeland was very conscious of what was happening around him. The pale green current flowed across his fingers and straight down to his toes. His trainers, he noted, had been quite blow away leaving only his socks.

Two seconds later he hit the ground and promptly fell unconscious.

xxx

"You…You were hit by lightning?" Victor was sat forward in his seat facing Leeland with his burning cheeks. "And you forgot to mention it?"

"It…It didn't really seem important." Leeland said with a small shrug. Really, he thought the whole thing had been hilarious. No one else did though. As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he was grounded for two months and his bottom has stung for days.

"And you just walked away?" Scott asked but Leeland snorted and shook his head. "From the lighting? Yeah, but from the fall? Broke my left arm in three places, surface bruisin' on my ribs, twisted my left ankle an' it's never been right since and cracked my skull open." Leaning forward, he turned in his seat and parted his mass of fluffy white blonde hair. There was a medium sized scar on the back of his skull, which had been previously covered by his hair.

"Well haven't you been through the wars."

Leeland was not sure if Emma was being sarcastic of if it was the stick she had firmly stuck where the sun didn't shine. There was something else in Emma's voice though, perhaps a realisation dawning upon her.

"But the electricity did nothing?" The large broad shouldered man, Peter, spoke up and a trace of Russian accent hit Leeland's ears. He did not register it at first, as he could not yet distinguish the sounds of different languages.

"_Not a thing._" The words that left his mouth were not English and the look on Peters face let him know. Sinking down in his seat, he shifted his gaze towards Victor. "_I did it again, didn't I_?" He muffled into his top but Victor didn't have the faintest idea what he had said and so grinned in response. "Oh stop grinning." But the blonde let a smile slip across his own features; he supposed it was pretty funny.

Beast scribbled something down on his notes as Emma got to her feet. "This has been…fascinating but I have an appointment. Victor you have an essay due in tomorrow." With that she left the room as quickly as she could without a second look back. The blonde arched his eyebrow and peered over his shoulder as she left, watching her make a quick get away.

"What does she teach?"

"Ethics." Victor replied and Leeland had to hide his smirk. If there was one subject he could not see Miss Frost teaching, it was Ethics. Hippies, yes. But some one as pristine looking as her, never.

"Please don't remind me." Kitty gave a small click of her tongue and it was then that Leeland decided he rather liked Kitty.

There was a small rustle of paper and Beast retrieved a photograph from his files and pushed it across the table. Tilting his head to the side, the boy's eyebrows creased in confusion.

"My migraine tablets?" He asked, recognising the little blue tablets with the 'H' inscribed upon them. When he looked up into the other faces though, his own expression changed into that of confusion.

Victor had shuffled slightly in his seat; Kitty and Peter were giving him a look of almost pity. At least, he was very sure it was pity but he decided to wait and see what all the fuss was about.

"How long have you been on them?" Beast questioned and Leeland had to think for a few moments.

"Well…I was on these pink one's when I was about nine, and then when I was twelve I started on those."

"And did they do anything for your migraines."

Leeland frowned. "They where 'eadache tablets, what else are they supposed to do?" He frowned; the atmosphere in the room was making his stomach twist uneasily. "Why are you all starin' at me like that?" The pain behind his eye's shifted to the left, making him clench his teeth in annoyance.

"They're not migraine tablets Leeland." Beast started, voice quiet normal despite the circumstance. "They're a street drug, _Hope_. Used to suppress mutant ability's." The large blue mutant removed his little thin spectacles and the room fell eerily quiet.

"B…But I…Ah was getting' them from the Doctor's…'E gave me them." Leeland started quietly, his heartbeat very nearly caught in his throat.

"That…You've got 'em mixed up. You must have 'em mixed up."

"I'm sorry Leeland but your blood samples-"

"Screw blood samples!" He shouted suddenly, up and out of his chair as quick as anyone could blink. The lights in the room began to flicker on and off. The computer machines around the room began to whir and Leeland had to clench his fingers at his side. "Just….Just tell me my Dad didn't know." He looked at Beast who started to talk but the blonde changed his mind, turned on his heel and left the room.

Victor started after him but there was a loud crash outside, like someone had thrown him or herself against the wall and before he could reach the door Logan pulled him back. "I've got this one Spikes."

Logan was a quiet man, most of the time. Very quickly, the Canadian could turn the attention to his claws and too whomever was on the end of them. The person would have to be dipped in luck to wiggle their way from becoming skewered kebabs. But above all that, Logan knew confused anger when he saw it.

The loud thud had been Leeland who had kicked his right foot into one of the metal plated walls repeatedly and was now leaning up against it, panting for breath.

Nearly a foot shorter than the boy in front of him, Logan crossed his arms over his chest and simply watched him. "You're angry." He stated. There was no question to his voice, he didn't need one. Leeland turned his head slowly, hands resting against the metal sheets that littered the walls. With his chest rising and falling with shortage of breath, he found the strength to glare.

"When you're angry, you don't attack the walls. You go to the Danger room and fight it out there. Now move." The small gruff man refused to break eye contact; he was rather good at that.

No one moved for a few moments before Leeland finally shifted his gaze and pushed himself from the wall, clenching his hands by the side. There was so much running through his mind and the over bearing migraine were starting to weigh him down. How on Earth was he supposed to process that? So many questions that no one around him could answer and the only one who could, was missing.

_Dad._

xxx

Pacing up and down her office, Emma cradled the telephone in one had while the other picked at the hem of her white vest top. There was no attachment, she told her self that all those years ago. Can't get attached, won't get attached. It was better that way, it allowed her to shut up and get on with her life. Hearing his story though, how sick he was and what his father had been giving him (She didn't need to be there to know), it made her angry. Perhaps not at 'Williams Sr' and certainly not at the boy. (Though she did half a mind to slap him around the head…climbing pylons indeed.) Maybe she was angry with herself, but it was not her fault. Was it?

Sinking down into her seat she closed her eyes and pressed the phone more securely to her ear.

"It wasn't my fault…" She muttered, determined to make it so.

xxx

"Lauraaaa~" Julian Keller grinned as he leaned across the stair banister and down into the hallway where a young girl had started to shrug off her jacket. Looking upwards, her dark hair fell into lines around her face and her green eye's met with the boys. Her face was devoid of emotion for a second or two before she remembered what Logan had told her.

_"And it wouldn't kill you to smile more. Bet that Keller kid would like you more if you did."_

Laura let a small smile grace her lips and she suddenly looked several years younger, her dull eye's almost coming to life.

It made the boy falter for a moment; his face melting with want and need. However, she always did that too him, it was what made her so unique to him.

"Julian." Was her reply before she glanced downwards.

"Do I get a hug or what?" Julian threw his bottom lip out into a pout, something that did not suit the face of a boy slowly turning into a man. Walking into the middle of the hall, Laura placed her hands behind her back and peered upwards. "Perhaps if my arms could stretch, then yes I could hug you from there. As it is, they cannot and I have places to be. Good bye Julian Keller." And with that, she made her way down the hallway.

For a moment, Julian believed she had been joking, then he soon realised that she was being her serious self. "Dam it." He mumbled, wondering whether or not to run after her. No, the last time he did that he made her jump and she had threatened to cut off his most delicate parts.

What a strange couple they were coming to be.

xxx

Back in Emma's office, the woman was becoming more irate. "Tony Stark if you don't pick up this phone I'm going to send it telepathically to where phones should not be-"

"Emma!" Came a breathless voice on the other side of the line. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I was in a meeting. I was just about to ring you straight afterwards actually."

Emma frowned slightly but let the comment slip past her tongue. Crossing one leg neatly over the other she waited.

"I think I've found Mr Williams…though, I'm under the impression that's not his real name?" Tony questioned but Emma wondered how much she should divulge to her ex lover. "No." She replied simply. "It wasn't the last time we met."

"When was that?" The Iron Man asked casually causing Emma to smile ever so lightly. "If I told you Tony, I'd have to do something very drastic in return."

"Oh really?" Came his intrigued reply, the smile evident in his tone.

"The location Tony?"

"Not until you tell me what's going on. I give you his location, you let me see this new mutant."

_Of course, a catch_. Thought Emma. There were always catches when it came to people doing favours, something she knew a great deal about. "No can do."

"Then you don't get his location."

"Then I let a boy who can interface with machinery near your building. I do wonder how long your armour would last against him. Think of the headlines, 'boy learning to use his powers takes down the man of Iron.' "

There was silence on the other end of the line, but Emma waited as patiently as she could.

"Using your own child against me Emma?"

It was a shock after the silence.

Emma was grateful that she was not talking to Tony in person and had the privacy of her office. The furniture and books where the only ones who saw her reaction, her face fallen into sad lines before she composed herself.

"He isn't my child Tony. Whatever gave you that impression?"

"He's the spitting image of you…before the surgery of course."

"I think you'll find he looks more like his father, but I'm not discussing this over the phone."

"Looks nothing like…oh. So William's isn't his real father?"

"No." Emma replied. "His whereabouts' Tony, now before I become very impatient."

"Why?"

"Because I have a very large bone to pick with a man who was supposed to look after that boy, not drug him into submission. You've heard of _Hope_, I presume? It doesn't matter who his real parents are, that man poisoned a child in his care and I shan't stand for it. Now you will give me that location Anthony or we're going to have a very big falling out."

"…I'll email you his whereabouts."

"Thank you." Emma let a small breath that she was unaware of even holding.

"Something big is brewing Emma, I need the mutants of my side for this, can I count on you?"

"On me, yes. But I can't speak for the rest of the mutant race. Why, what are you hiding up your sleeve?"

"I'll have to tell you later, I have a meeting in a few moments."

"Fine. Thank you. I appreciate this." And Emma really did, despite the anger she was feeling towards her former lover. None of that mattered though and she waited diligently for the email, telling her the location of the man now known as Jonathon Williams. But that was not who she remembered, even if nearly eighteen years had passed.

xxx

One thump. Two thumps. Clenched fists beat down onto the punch bag that Logan held securely in his arms. The boy needed something to take his anger out on, and luckily for them he had not decided to make any more prehistoric animals.

"Unclench your thumb from your hand, you'll break it." Logan told him, his feet staggered apart as to hold the bag more securely. Not that it really mattered, he was sure a strong breeze could blow the kid away and his punch could not be felt through the material.

Throwing his hands up into the air, the boy panted for breath before letting them rest on the top of his legs. "Don't…don't care no more." He started with a sulky disposition, causing the older mutant to roll his eyes and the bag disappeared from sight. He watched as Leeland sat himself on the floor with his hands resting across his knees. Shaking from head to toe, he didn't even need to smell the blood in the room because he could see it quite clearly. The boy's hands shook, his scraped knuckles now red raw from the weak beating.

"He lied to me…Said they'd 'elp my 'ead but, but it just made it worse." He stared at the floor, too annoyed and ashamed to look up. "What else did 'e lie about?"

Logan crouched next to the blonde, resting his own hands on the top of his knees.

"Sometimes kid, people lie. They want to protect others, that's all. Sounds to me like your Dad was protecting you from something."

Leeland shook his head, his lip's clenched together. "Protecting me from what! Ah've been like this-a mutant- for years and 'e 'id it from me. Ah'm so stupid, ah couldn't even see it."

"Well…" Started Logan. "Look at this way. If you always knew you were a mutant, you would have come here and likely chances you'd be dead by now." It was so blank and to the point that Leeland was not sure he had heard correctly. That was, until he looked up into Logan's age weathered.

"One thing we're not too good at, apparently, is protecting kids like you. So your Dad went one step better in the wrong direction. What he did was stupid, drugging you like that but…he did it because I think he cares. Seems like he knew what he was doing."

The boy peered down at the floor, wondering if Logan had taken his father's side. "Deep down you know I'm right. You're a mutant, not a disease that needs curing and covering up and you're made of stronger stuff. Your punching on the other hand…"

The blonde let out a small bust of laughter and gave a nod of his head. "Fighting's never been my strong point. Curlin' up in a ball was the better option."

"We'll have you training with the rest of them in no time kid. Now get up and let's see how good you are at kick boxing."

Leeland realised it was a Thursday. He never could get the hang of Thursdays.

**TBC~**


	8. Almost, But Not Quite, Entirely

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 18/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 8:** Almost, But Not Quite, Entirely Unlike Tea

"I wish you would have let me seen to these before." Joshua 'Josh' Foley frowned down at the hands that where currently cupped in his own. Golden liquid skin shimmered against the cool metal of the infirmary. Leeland could only press his lips together to hide an embarrassed little smile. "Then you would 'ave 'ad to make two trips." He murmured, granting him a nudge in the elbow from Victor. Though he was being playful, there was an edge of worry in his look as Josh examined the hands.

With a quick trail of his fingers, the scrapes on his knuckles and the one on the back of his hands vanished as if they had never been there in the first place. The eldest of them all stared with his lips partially opened, unable to stutter even a thank you.

"You're welcome." Smirked Josh, pushing his own golden hair from his eye's as Leeland nodded quickly.

"How are you holding up?" Victor asked, taking a seat next to him with his hands resting on the top of his thighs. Leeland gave a small shrug of his shoulders, turning his head slightly to peer at the others dark green eyes. For a second, Leeland wondered what he would like if he where not green but less, well, reptile looking. Not that Leeland thought it mattered, it was just something suddenly that seeped into his mind.

"Ah'll live." Came Leeland's reply but it was quiet, almost shaken. Beast had spoken to him on his own after his session with Logan. It was not a happy conversation and Leeland did not have much to say other than the odd murmur here and there.

"It's not going to be easy Leeland." He told him. "The drugs that make up _Hope_ are highly addictive, and it'll take a while to work out of your system. It won't be pleasant."

"Ah just…Ah just don't know what to think right now. Whether ah should be angry or, I dunno." When the one person you trust and depend on, who teaches you right from wrong and that lying is wrong, lies to you themselves…it was hard for him to take in.

"You're allowed to be angry Lee." Came Victor's reply with his hands resting on the other's shoulder gently. "Parents are…they're adults and they don't see the way their kids see but Mr. Logan's right, he must have had a reason. You love him right?" Victor asked and Leeland nodded his head. There was no question about it, he did love his father. At that moment, he just didn't like him very much.

"Parents are douche bags." Josh shrugged, making Leeland look at him with a small frown. But his face softened when he saw how contorted and annoyed Josh's was. He was looking down at one of the medical tables, scowling at it as it had done something terrible to him. "If you don't conform to their way of thinking, to their DNA they…they leave you and pretend you don't exist." Taking a deep breath the golden hued boy looked up and a smile came to his lips. "But I'm better of without them. Nobody's worth it, not even your folks, if they can't except you."

Leeland thought about this, but he did not quite agree. All his life all he had ever wanted to do was please his father but it seemed like nothing ever worked the way it was supposed to. Not as smart as the other children, certainly not as athletic. One disappointment after the other. Perhaps by making sure his mutation did not surface, it would ensure at least some kind of normality in their lives. But Leeland was not sure he could quite forgive that, or the mental institution.

Victor had wanted to say that that Josh's opinions were a little harsh, but what did he know? His parents loved him and sent him to Xavier's for his own safety. The golden boy's parents had signed him over so they could forget they even had a child. So he kept his lips sealed. It was only then that he realised his hand was still upon Leeland's shoulder and sheepishly moved it, hoping the boy had not noticed.

A tingling sensation remained where Victor's fingers had been not seconds before. Suddenly Leeland was very aware of that shoulder and cleared his throat.

"Good news though, ah don't 'ave to sleep down 'ere anymore." A smile graced his lips and the two boys before him agreed.

"Yeah but bad news, you're next to Nicky." Josh snickered behind his hand as Victor frowned. "And me!" He declared with a small pout before Josh grinned. "Exactly. You have the worst music taste in the world Borkowski."

"Do not!" Victor retorted with a scowl but Leeland could only sit and laugh, glad for a distraction.

"Come on, Mr. Summer's is on dinner duty and his cooking…we'll I think we're ordering take out."

"Can't." Said Victor with a shake of head. "No one's to come within a two mile radius of this place."

"Dam." Letting out a breath to the side Josh frowned before noting how quiet Leeland had gone. Shoulder's hunched and nose pink, he stared at the ground with his mouth pulled into sad lines. "Sorry." The British boy mumbled but Josh only snorted and shook his head, a grin spread on his face. "Don't take it too literally Leeland. We've suffered worse than Cyclop's cooking."

"Yeah." Victor joined in. "Josh's cooking." He grinned before having to dodge a punch to the arm. In retaliation, Victor threw out his tongue and with one long flick he licked the side of the golden boy's face.

"Ewww, Dammit Victor that's gross!" Jumping back in horror, the boy tried desperately to wipe the side of wet covered face with one of his white sleeves rendering them quite grubby. Giggling, Leeland leaned backwards and let little thoughts slip through his mind. He wondered what else that tongue of Victor's could do before realising that was inappropriate. Not with what was going on around him, that kind of thinking should have been at the bottom of his list. It wasn't though. What kind of teenage boy would he be if he did not have the occasional bad thought?

xxx

Leeland was not sleeping well. In fact, he was pretty sure he had not slept for the last four nights. However he was still getting used to the new time zone he was living in and his new surroundings. The room was a little on the big side and he was pretty sure he could have put two and half of his own bedroom inside of it. It was on the basic side as far as personality went; he didn't have anything with him making him feel more and more like a spare part.

Victor's room was adored with photographs and posters, little knick-knacks and trinkets here and there. On the opposite scale, Nicky's room was a dump filled with dirty laundry, chocolate wrappers and toys. (Which he assured Leeland were from when he was little and not now that he was twelve.)

It was three O'clock in the morning and he had been starting at the luminous green numbers of the digital clock for the past hour and a half. He had been contemplating for nearly twenty minutes whether or not to see if Victor was still awake. Of course he knew that was unlikely.

There was only the bedside lamp illuminating him, the bed and surrounding area. It did not quite reach the corners of the room letting dark shadows rest there. Making the boy twitchier was the wind howling outside the window, causing the trees scrape against the glass like animated bones.

Clutching the covers around his neck and towards his chin, Leeland decided he would just have to stick it out. It would only be a few more hours until it became light and then he could get up. But with his legs twitching and his mouth dry, he knew he would not be sleeping that night.

After one particularly loud bang against the window, Leeland was up like a shot and bolted towards the door. The corridor was just as dark and looming and as he shuffled to the next room along. He could feel his heart race against his chest in fear. He tried to keep his eyes from the darkness at the end of the long stretch of hallway and knocked lightly on the green mutants door. There was, of course, no reply and so Leeland tried again, only this time a little louder. Closing his eyes, the boy winced and hoped it would not wake up anyone else.

With baited breath he waited until he heard a small scuffle from inside the room and suddenly he wanted to turn and run back towards his room. But his bare feet remained rooted and he ran his hands up and down his bare t-shirt covered arms. The smaller scuffle came closer towards the door and it opened with a tiny click.

"Hmm…'lo?" Victor peered out into the hallway, his eye's still near enough closed from the sleep he had been awoken from.

"Er." Leeland started stupidly.

"…Leeland? It's…It's three in the morning?" Victor stifled a yawn but couldn't keep it away and so he tried to hide it behind his arm. It was not unusual for him to be awoken at stupid O'clock in the morning, especially when he was staying at the institute.

"I…Ah'm sorry." Leeland mumbled, his arms now across his chest as he practically hugged himself. Where as Leeland was wearing shorts and T-shirt, Victor was once again topless and only in a dark pair of boxer shorts. Seeing such a sight made the blonde chew on the side of his lips. "Ah'll…ah'm sorry, go back to bed." He went to turn and head back to his own room but the door opened a little wider and the green mutant wrapped his fingers around the top of his arm.

"Get in here." He whispered quietly with a smile in his voice. Leeland very nearly stumbled but managed to keep his up right composure. Victor's room was just as dark as his own but it looked more inviting. Besides, the dark did not affect him so much when he had someone else there with him.

He watched from the edge of the bed as Victor crawled back into it and under the covers. They started at each other for a second or two before Victor rolled his eyes and patted the pillow next to him. "Well get in then, I don't suppose the floor's very comfortable." Victor smiled and a part of him found it highly adorable as Leeland very nearly fell over his own feet to crawl into the space next to him.

The bed was big enough for the both of them, even with Leeland's longer legs. Staring at each other across the pillows, Victor tilted his head to the side as Leeland placed his hands under his head.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asked too which Leeland nodded. "I remember when I started here. I…Paras was my roommate but the room was too big for me on my own. Swapped with Santo." A smile graced his lips at the memory of the purple boy he had loved. Well, he wasn't sure if it was love but it certainly nothing he knew before.

"My room at 'ome, it's tiny." Lying in the bed together made Leeland's heart beat even harder and he was not sure why it was bothering him so much. Their legs would brush past each other and Leeland found himself trying to shuffle so there was at least some space between them.

"You're not Ok, are you?" Victor asked after a little silence had passed.

"You keep askin' me that."

"And I'll keep asking until you're fine. Or at least as fine as you're going to get here." Victor smirked ever so slightly, his eyes still heavy from the sleep he had been awoken from.

"Is it that bad?" Leeland asked, pulling his knee's up towards his chest, their legs brushing past each other once again. The soft blonde hairs on the elder boy's skin stood on end but he tried to concentrate solely on Victor.

"Depends on what you consider to be bad. The X-men are….hmm, hard to figure out sometimes." The green mutant let his thoughts wander to one particularly memory, it was slightly hazy but that was to be expected considering the circumstances.

"Tell me? If…If yah don't mind me asking?" The blonde was wide-awake and he hoped Victor did not mind being kept awake by his incessant ramblings. The other let a small smile spread across his lips and giving a small nod of his head he shuffled closer in the bed.

"It was…I had the biggest crush on one of my teachers." He started and it was Leeland's turn to smile.

"Really?"

"Really, really. I thought Mr. Beaubier was so cool and I stupidly thought he liked me. He helped me see that I didn't like girls, that I liked boys. I think I always had done but he was the one that told me it wasn't anything to be ashamed of just like my mutation. But…" Victor closed his eye's, the smile still of his face. "Shit happens and it went wrong for Jean-Paul and I didn't see it at first. You don't really see anything when a speedster punches you."

Leeland pressed his lips together and frowned, picturing the scene in side his own mind. A besotted and smitten Victor looking up at his teacher and the man had cast him off as nothing more than an irritating child. Only after four days, Leeland could see that wasn't true of the boy. There was intelligence in his eyes and a strong will, something Leeland certainly did not believe he himself had.

"Why'd he do that?"

Victor shuffled slightly in the bed before giving a sad half smile. "We're the X-men, near enough, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Don't trust anyone Leeland…seem's like everyone is looking out for themselves now."

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Maybe not us. I've got Julian, Santo and everyone but people like Cyclops and Miss Frost. You can't trust them."

"So why do you stay?"

A moment of silence passed and Leeland waited patiently for Victor's reply.

"Because we're not all like that. I want things around here to change, for our teachers to take more interest in their students. Their lives are complicated and we don't always fit into the equation."

"Besides." He added. "Someone has to watch the kids." The green mutant yawned and let his eye's close. The heat from their body's warmed their skin and Leeland found himself drifting to sleep before he could even thank Victor for letting him stay.

"Victor?" Leeland murmured.

"Hmmm?"

"…Good night."

xxx

When the sun started to rise, Leeland found himself awakening from a sleep he couldn't remember falling into. At least he had a few hours sleep that were not down in a clinical medical room or on his own in the dark. There was an exceptional amount of warmth around him and for a second or two he could not recall where he was. That was until the body next to him shifted and he felt the soft pull of fingers in his hair. Upon opening his eye's he found that he had somehow curled himself tight in against Victor's bare chest, his hands resting against his toned upper body.

In that moment, his body went rigid and he hoped-no-he prayed to whatever cruel God was out there that Victor was sound asleep. Or at least not fully awake to realise what was going on. Unfortunately the soft stroke of hands in his hair made him realise that Victor was awake but it was just a question of who was going to be more embarrassed.

The green mutant was not fully awake but he was not so far asleep that he was not aware of the body pulled up next to his. At first he had been a little shocked when the tall and dead to the world being had cuddled up close to him. Then, when the shock had worn off, he had found the experience to be almost pleasant. Having seen him in the shower already, Victor knew what to expect body wise but that did not dissolve the shock of feeling how weightless Leeland was. It was like receiving a hug from a piece of paper.

Victor was glad the other boy had slept soundly, knowing full well that he had not been sleeping well. Being in a strange new environment with the constant threat of attack over one's head could really alter a sleeping pattern, or so he had heard.

Taking a chance, Leeland peered upwards. The metal in his lip grazed against the others skin sending a shock of shivers up and down his spine. The fingers wrapped around his fly away hair, tensing, causing him to freeze on the spot.

"Sorry!" Leeland exclaimed suddenly, pushing himself as far back and up as he could go. There was a small scuffle when their legs became entangled in the covers and sheets.

"Leeland watch out!-"

_THUMP!_

There was a loud thud on the ground and scrambling across the bed, Victor peered over the side and couldn't stop the large burst of laughter that fell from his lips. The blonde had landed on the rug with his legs still tangled in the sheets and still up on the bed.

"….oww." The blonde murmured, irritated at himself and at the bed for causing both his embarrassment and discomfort. However, a small smile creased his lips when he heard the green mutants joyous rupture of giggles.

"Oi! Little help 'ere!" The blonde smirked and tried to move his legs but it was to no avail. Still laughing, Victor pushed himself upwards to try and help his new friend but when he held out his hand to help him up, Leeland gave a grin and pulled him down.

"Whoa-AHH!" There was another thud but instead of landing next to him, like he hoped, Leeland had pulled the green mutant on top of him.

At first, Victor did not realise he had landed on the other boy until he spread his hands outwards against the others chest. Looking up, their faces where barely centimeters away.

"Uhh…" Leeland started, his heart suddenly pounding against his chest, eye's wide. This must have been how rabbits felt in on coming traffic. Bewildered, confused and downright terrified of any movement his body was about to make.

"….Breakfast?" Victor asked quietly, his voice barely above a whisper and Leeland gave the biggest nod of his head he could muster. "Yes!" He squeaked, begging every part of him not to react but it was a rather awkward position pressing rather delicate parts of the pair of them together.

"I…uh…I'm…Going to get up now." Victor mumbled, struggling to push himself backwards as the sheets where still tangled up in his own feet. "Oh for goodness…." Gritting his teeth together he gave a rather apologetic smile to the boy he was laid on top of before shoving himself rather unceremoniously to the side.

There was silence, nothing but the sound of their own breathing penetrated the room.

"A'mgonnagoandgetdressed." Leeland rambled as quickly as he could before stumbling to his feet. Without a second look back he bolted for the door and was out in the corridor in the blink of an eye.

Victor stared at his ceiling. "Dammit."

It seemed nothing was going to the way he wanted to of late. He would have to visit Paras, _again_, and redeem himself_, again_. Secretly he wondered if his best friend would be laughing at him? Yes, yes he would.

After nearly falling out of Victor's door and into his own, Leeland had pressed his back up against the doorframe and cursed his stupidity.

The blonde was for the most part, a normal average teenage boy. Teenager boys have normal natural urges and react to certain situations. Unfortunately, that had been one of those situations and he slid down the doorframe, his bottom lip sucked into his mouth. Now the lower part of him ached and gripping his hands to his knees he tried to will the sensation away. At least, he tried to will it away but it was not working.

"…Come on!" He begged.

Knowing someone only four or five days, in Leeland's mind, did not warrant making him part of his own deluded sexual fantasies. Besides, when the adrenaline rush began to ware off he realised how bad he felt physically. Sweat had begun to pool on his fore head and the tops of his legs trembled with the exhaustion of his warped sleeping arrangement. What had made him curl up against Victor in the first place?

Loneliness. The boy was ever so lonely. Victor had been the only one to reach out to him, to take him under his proverbial wing. This one simple act of kindness had done something to the boy, which he hated himself for. He had developed feelings for the green hued mutant and now there was no way of stopping these thoughts turning into a full blow infatuation with him. Coupled with everything else going on and around his bizarre little life, Leeland knew he did not want that.

However….

"He's… gorgeous." He found himself whispering to the empty room, tilting his head to the side so that only his cheek was pressed up against the slats of wood. Maybe a better distraction would arise, and he could put push the small blimp behind.

The problem with blimps though was that they had a terrible tendency to blow up in one's face.

Pulling on a pair of Jean's and a plain t-shirt, the blonde examined himself in the mirror and knew from a glance how hopeless he appeared. The strain of the mutation and the copious amounts of drugs were rapidly gaining on him and he knew Victor was right; he was sick. If the sick didn't get better, they got worse or they died. Leeland was hoping for the former but feeling very much like the later.

Fifteen minutes later he shuffled his now sock covered feet down the deserted corridor and stretched the sleeves of his hooded top. They where now dangling at his sides, making him feel like a kid in Dad's clothes but it made him feel more at home. Home…Dam he missed English tea.

Chewing on the cuff of the jumper, he waited outside Victor's door, still shuffling his feet back and forth. Agitation was rising up inside of him as well as the pain behind his eyes. The door opened and Victor appeared wearing a pair of cut of shorts, his sandals and a red t-shirt. It was strange to think that outside it was nearly the dead of winter and here the green mutant was looking ready for the beach. Then again, Leeland supposed it was so warm in the building you might as well treat it like the middle of July.

Their eyes did not meet and Victor shut his door behind him. "Ready?" He asked, looking at his shoulder rather than his eyes. The blonde gave a small quick nod of his head and the pair headed down the corridor with the silence hanging above them like a bad smell. When they hit the top of the staircase it was Victor who turned to him and tilted his head to the side.

"Sorry about that."

Leeland frowned and shook his head, turning it with a bemused little smile on his face. "Ah'm the one who fell of the bed, remember." He was also the one who had decided to snuggle up to the other boy like a newborn kitten, but he decided to skirt over that little bit of information.

A comfortable silence surrounded them as they made their way towards the kitchen and not a living soul seemed to be in sight. That suited Leeland just fine. He was getting a little tied of being ogled at.

"So what are you hungry for?" Victor asked, rounding the corner to enter the blue themed kitchen but the blonde only shrugged his shoulders. Standing idly at the fridge he twiddled with the loose thread he had created on the new jeans, his toes rubbing back and forth on the Linoleum floor. Without realising it, he let his eye's slip shut as the refrigerator hummed away to him. It wasn't quite electrical, but the motor was run by an electric current amd it still whispered ever so quietly into his ears.

Fiddling around with the bread bin, Victor had not noticed his new friend's strange behaviour until he turned to ask him a question. He saw the peace filled look on his face, cheek pressed up against the fridge door as if he had simply slumped there after a few too many drinks. There was that look again, the hopeless lost look of a little boy who didn't have a clue what was real or make believe. Chewing on the side of his lip, the younger boy stepped forward and tilted his head to the side.

"Lee?" He whispered and as if waking from a deep filled sleep the blonde moved himself and opened his eyes before blinking up at the light. "Huh?"

"Do you need to go back to bed?" He asked with a laugh in his voice causing Leeland to quickly shake his flushed freckled face. "Tea." Said the boy, slipping into one of the chairs. "Ah think ah need tea…Please."

"Coming up." Victor nodded but he was better at making coffee than he was at making the British preference. So he potted around the kitchen, delving here there and everywhere to find a box of "English Breakfast" and went about boiling the kettle.

Leeland watched him silently, his head cupped in his hands with his elbows balanced on the table. There was something about the reptilian like mutant that made him think about himself. There was certainly nothing normal looking about the boy, except he had a very human shaped head, two arms, and two legs. Everything that a human needed to function, Victor had it. But the spiked carapace upon his head, the lack of any distinguishable hair and the bizarre thing he could do with his tongue. Yes, it made Leeland wonder why he thought he was, for a lack of better word, cute.

He had to tear his eyes away, to stare at the tabletop instead and listen for the sound of the kettle bubbling away to itself.

"Ok." Victor frowned, rubbing at the back of his head. "But how on Earth can you drink that stuff." They sat opposite each other at the table as the blonde scooped heaped teaspoons of sugar into the cup and added nearly a quarter of milk to the dark brown substance, turning it a murky caramel colour. "You lift the cup to your lips, an' drink." The blonde smirked and Victor frowned. "Sarcastic, much."

Leeland shrugged, a grin on his face. Lifting the lip of the cup to his mouth he took that first heated sip. However, the affect was not quite achieved and the blonde found himself pulling a face, looking almost disappointed.

"I should have mentioned." Said Victor. "It's pretty much brown colouring in a tea bag…how is it?"

The blonde let the liquid slide around his mouth but it was certainly no tea he had ever tasted before. "Well it's… Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea." Came his reply, causing Victor to grin and rest back in his seat, sipping at his own glass of fruit juice.

The sounds of footsteps echoed down the hallway and Victor looked up when three identical faces appeared in the door. "Good morning Victor." They said in unison before they turned their attention towards Leeland who was trying, but failing, to look inconspicuous. The girls gave him the creeps, if he was putting it politely. Not the smartest chap in the world, but even he knew that identical triplets were not supposed to happen in nature. Then again, boys were not supposed to look like lizards and rock golems.

"Morning." Victor replied, unphased by the girls and set about finishing up his breakfast. The three blondes' came around the table, two on each side of Leeland and one in front. With smiles on their faces and hands on the hips they spoke to the room.

"Do you mind if we borrowed Leeland for a while?" Phoebe asked, her eyes still upon the pale boy in front of her. The blonde tried to shrink down in his seat but the three young girls practically towered over him like grinning _Cheshire_ _Cats_.

There was, of course, no feeling behind the smiles just the simple act of facial muscles moving and contracting. The girls could no longer feel. No one had told they could not pretend to do so.

Victor frowned from his place at the sink but gave a small shrug of shoulders. "Urm sure…"

"Huh? Don't I get a say?" Leeland spluttered on his un-tea as Mindee and Celeste each took one of the tall male's arms and quite easily pulled him to his feet. "Come along, we have something to show you." And with that he was pulled from the seat and towards the kitchen entry.

"Uhmm…Ah'll er…Ah'll see you later?" He called over his shoulder towards the green mutant who nodded his head quickly and chewed on the side of his lip. "Sure." Was his meek reply. Peering his head around the doorframe he watched the three girls drag his new tall friend away.

Turning away, Victor continued to chew on the corner of his lip and found himself pottering around the kitchen. Leaning over the table he picked up Leeland's mug and cradled it in his hands.

"What am I doing, P?...What am I doing?"

xxx

"So…" Leeland started, peering down at the three blonde heads of hair as they made their way down the hallways of the Xavier institute.

"Which one of yah is…which?" He had wanted to ask where they ere going but a smile spread across his lips when he realised he did not know one girl from the other.

"Mindee." Said the one on his left.

"Phoebe." The one of his right.

"Celeste." Came the one at the front and she peered over her shoulder, a small smile on her face but Leeland was not so sure there was anything behind it. They seemed not cold or even distant…perhaps a little lost. As if their emotions where locked away and the door simply needed to be open.

"…Ah can't tell either one of yah apart, sorry. Erm, Ah didn't think yah could get identical triplets."

"Of course you can." Said Mindee. "They're very rare but they do happen…"

"Besides." Continued Celeste. "We're not triplets, not really."

"Then, what are you?" The boy frowned. "Ah mean!" He added quickly, realising how rude he was being. "Ah meant…well, ah know you're girls but really…is it your mutation or…." He closed his mouth as they led him towards the elevator and he had an awful feeling he would have to walk the corridors made of tin cans once again.

"We're…" Said the girls together. "Complicated." They settled on. One of the girls leaned forwards and pressed the button for the lower levels and as the door slid shut Leeland found that it was almost like being inside a hall of mirrors.

The girls were quiet, they were nice but Leeland still had an odd feeling about them.

"You er, yah look a little bit like Miss Frost." Perhaps 'a little' was a bit of an understatement. The same hair, the same bone structure and their eyes where almost duplicate.

"Yes." Said the girls. "She's our mother."

Leeland blinked several time's, as he had not quite anticipated their response and such a quick one at that. Looking down at them he began to chew on the side of his lip.

"Yah don't call her mum or mom or…whatever."

"No." The girls said simply. "But she is our mother."

Leeland pursed his lips to the side and contemplated the questions flying around inside his head. "Ok." Came his quiet response, as it seemed that the subject was closed and finished with.

"Anyway…" He started, trying to change the subject. The lift came to a halt and they stepped out into the corridor, heading towards the Danger Room.

"What do yah wanna show me then?"

Meanwhile, Emma found herself pacing the giant underground garage where they kept the majority of the vehicles including the Jet. They now had Jonathon William's whereabouts and she had found herself a little disappointed in the man. They had known each other very briefly and had one thing in common; the boy. She found herself disappointed due to the situation he had made for himself.

He was in hiding, which she knew, but she found it bitterly disappointing that it had come down to this. The man she knew was not a coward nor would he have hidden away but stood tall and proud. But, she supposed _once_ you start adding children to the equation people start turning soft. That was why she was glad she had made the choice she had.

"Are you ready?" Scott came to the gangway of the jet in his uniform, not looking at her while he affixed his visor. Emma had wanted to do this on her own with Stark but she was finding it harder and harder to simply say no to Scott.

_Dam._ She thought. _I'm getting soft._ It certainly said something about a woman the day she could not say no to her husband. Well she would not have the last breath; Emma Frost was certainly not soft.

"Tony said he'd meet us there." Came her simple reply as they headed into the plane.

"And we're not to tell the boy?"

"No." Her flat reply held no emotion and Scott frowned. A question had been bubbling in his mind for so long and now it simply could not be contained.

"What's so special about him Emma…special to you?" It had danced off his tongue before he had even time to think the question through. It had to be said though. The White Queen was not exceptionally good with children, but there was something about Leeland that troubled him and he knew in his heart of hearts it had to do with Emma.

"Pardon?" Emma turned, with a slim manicured eyebrow arched and a perplexed expression written across her face.

"You said we wouldn't do this Emma…keep secrets. Now tell me, please."

"There's nothing to tell Scott. He's not special but he's been lied to and I won't-" She stopped herself though and pressed her lips shut. No, she would not abide lying to the boy but what if it was for his own good. Instead, she re thought her response.

"Too many of my students are dead. I won't get attached to another one just to lose him again." She turned, finished with the conversation. The jet had to be powered up and babbling all morning was going to get them nowhere.

"Again?" Scott took a step forward, the gangway closing in on them as he did so.

"What are you rambling on about now?" Taking a seat in the cockpit Emma readied the appropriate buttons and programmed in their flight path.

"You said you wouldn't lose him again."

"I said I wouldn't lose any more students." Came her calm reply but she noticed how her fingers had started to tremble. How frightfully…annoying.

"No Emma. You said you wouldn't loose him again."

She expected some sort of anger to pulse from Scott, but instead he slid into the seat next to her and placed his fingers over her own. It would have been so much easier if he was angry with her, he usually was. It was simply how they worked. Scott would be the angry macho man and she would let it fly right over her head. Such a nice arrangement.

"Who is he Emma…Who is he to you?"

Silence fell inside the jet and Emma peered down at her hands, her fingers laced with her lovers. The man was more than that; he was her husband. So why was she hiding so many secrets? Because the truth hurt, it hurt every year and she knew it would keep on hurting even now.

"No one Scott. He's no one too me." And she slid her hand from his and no more was said.

xxx

"An' we're back in the big metal room. Lovely." Leeland frowned and the girls led him to the middle of the Danger Room. They made him sit directly in the middle with his long legs crossed in Indian style. They did the same but sat around him in a triangle formation, their hands placed palm upwards on top of their knees.

"Are you gonna tell me what's up 'cos this is kinda weird." Leeland admitted with a small nervous laugh.

"We believe…." Started the girls at once. "That your ability's are on a physic level" They closed their eyes.

"But er…Doc said they where Omniling….omniligy…something or other-ah dunno, Ah can't remember long words. Ah can't read minds." Staring at them he wondered what on Earth they were up to. "Should I er, close my eye's too?"

"Yes." Said the girls and the boy did so but he felt ever so foolish and out in the open whilst doing so.

"To be able to read someone's language, you must first be able to enter their mind. We believe you do this unconsciously without realising it. That you read their physic energy first. We also believe…" They fell silent and Leeland peeked one eye open.

"Yes?" He asked.

"No." The girls changed their minds. "We do not believe. We know. We know that it is not just the drugs that cause your migraines."

"Great." Leeland muttered. "So everyone knows."

"Yes, we all know. The teachers are ever so bad at keeping secrets. But what we know is that there is something inside your mind, something you are holding back."

"There is a locked door." The one to his left said by herself, causing him to flinch and stare at her. When she opened her eye's, they where the purest white and her pupil had vanished entirely.

"And we must open it." Said the one to his right.

"By whatever means necessary." Finished the one right in front of him.

"G-Girls…Ok Ah'm not too sure about this." Leeland licked over his dry lips and even started to move away from them. Their eye's continued to glow and they looked towards his cowering form. "Stop it!" He told them. "This isn't-" He stopped mid sentence, taking the deepest of breaths and the feeling of weightlessness filled his entire being. In an instance, his own eye's blazed white and without realising it, he sat like them and waited for them to speak.

**TBC~**


	9. Share And Enjoy

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 19/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 9: **Share and Enjoy

As the darkness surrounded him, Leeland felt a sudden surge of panic in his transfixed state. It seemed to be that he could not control any part of his body, as if he had been frozen to the spot and banned from movement. What was slightly unnerving him was the outer body experience he believed to be going through. It was as if he and the girls were slowly leaving their body's down in the depths of the Danger Room and were floating high above them.

The dark surroundings settled around the four of them and a long shinning path of colour formed in front of them. It stretched out far into the distance and what appeared to be stars twinkled and shinned above them. But as they settled down onto the path, Leeland was rather sure that they were not stars but eye's watching their every move. The shadows made his heart flutter and a sense of anxiety washed over him.

"W-where…what is this?" He asked, voice quieter than he had anticipated. The girls turned towards him, there eyes quite normal now. They stood in a line with their hands placed behind their backs.

"This, Leeland, is the astral plane. A metaphorical level of existence with ties to the physical world, which only psychic entities can visit." They spoke as one, voices overlapping and it seemed as if only one of them held a voice.

"But…" Leeland started with a frown. "You brought me here, you're the psychic ones." He told them with firm belief.

"We would not be able to bring you on our own. There has to be willingness on your part."

"But there wasn't!" Leeland rounded on them. "You…Yah've like bewitched me or summat. Look!" He pointed downwards to where their four bodies could be made out still in the Danger Room. "I ain't moving, you made that 'appen!"

"No." Said the girls calmly. "_You_ made it happen. The door is slightly ajar inside your mind but there is something blocking it. We need to open the door Leeland." They stayed where they were, never once moving. It was unnerving and he pursed his lips together. "Well…well that's a good thing right? It's closed for a reason. Ah don't want people inside my 'ead, why'd yah wanna take that away from me?"

"We're not." Started the girls. "If the pressure is not relieved, something terrible will happen."

Leeland closed his eyes, tried to will himself back into his own body but it did not work. "Ukk." Growing irritated he kicked his leg out and crossed his arms over his chest with a small huff. The girls let a smile slip across their mouths and tilted their heads to the side. Oh yes, they could see the similarities now but as try as they might, they could not bring with them the feelings. They wanted to be able to smile with reason; to anger with purpose but for now they were not permitted to be like everyone else.

"You sulk to much." They said.

"And you're annoying." Leeland snapped back but they acted as if he had said nothing and he let out a small sigh. "Now what? Do we jus' stand 'ere, is summat supposed to 'appen." Testing the waters, so to speak, the boy stepped forward. He almost expected the winding path before him to break under his weight but it held firm with no apparent structure to keep it upwards.

"Control that pressure Leeland, it's been building up inside you for a while."

"What pressure-UFF!" The boy had turned to question the girls when something small and spherical hit him in the side of the head. It made him stumble and fall to the ground, landing on his behind. Grumbling, he rubbed his head and turned to see what had hit him. At first it made him stare, then it intrigued him and the boy leaned forward. Floating in front of him was a tiny green orb, no bigger than a tennis ball with the consistency of a soap bubble. In side, it crackled with the same pale green electricity that would sometimes tingle across the boy's fingers.

"What the 'eck is it?"

"It's yours." Said the girls. Leeland continued to stare, licking out over his lips but he shook his head. "I… Ah don't want it." He said quickly and reeled away from the bubble but it followed him, bobbing along an uncharted path.

"But it is a part of you."

"No." Leeland shook his head. "No ah talk to people I…ah 'ave terrible conversations with toasters and computers. I like that…it's…it's simple, it ain't a weapon."

"A weapon?" Asked the girls and Leeland nodded his head. "People who can shoot fire and stuff, it's like being a weapon." He looked up at the girls. "Ah don't wanna be a weapon….please." The sound of fear broke in Leeland's voice and a terror arose in him. The people who where supposedly after him, would this not make them want him more?

The girls looked down at him before the looked at each other. Something he thought that looked like pity spread across their expressions. "Then…we shall teach how not to be a weapon. And…weapons can be deactivated." They smiled.

xxx

The grass outside crunched under his now trainer covered feet. Victor moved his way across the gardens, wishing he had changed his knee length shorts for some trousers. That would have meant changing them once again when he was back inside. Anyway, he could bare the cold to sit with his favourite person. The grave was just as silent as ever but for Victor it was peaceful, that was until he started to ramble on.

"P…don't be angry at me ok, I…I've known him less than a week so you haven't anything to be-….Oh what am I doing!" Victor pushed his head into his hands and wished for hair to grip at. Instead, his fingers brushed the top of his spikes and the wind picked up around him. It blew through his clothes and ruffled the sleeves of his coat. A smile came to his face and he nodded his head. "Ok, ok…Hmm. You know, last night he asked why I stay here if it's so bad and the answer I gave him, well I'm not sure if it was the truth." When Victor was younger he had wanted to be one of the X-men, to help people and maybe change peoples views on their species. But so fa he had been punched unconscious by his teacher, lost his friends, and had had his own life hanging by a thread. it really did make him wonder.

"He's lost P…really lost. I look at him sometimes and he seems more like this little kid who's never had anyone. But it's not…I've known him less than a week, I'm not going to fall for him." But as Victor said it, he knew already that it was happening and there was nothing he could do about it other than let it continue down it's own path. Maybe something more drastic would come along and they could put it on the bottom of the proverbial list.

Looking upwards, his gaze fell across the mass gravesite and he gave a small sigh. Cold air fogged in front of him and when it cleared he watched as the X-jet took off from its resting place and hovered high up in the cloudy sky.

Back inside, he kicked off his trainers, pulled of his coat and leaned upwards to rest it on one of the coat hooks. A small fuzzy bundle bumped into him as he did so, causing him to stumble.

"Whoa there." Victor grinned down at the little wolf mutant who looked upwards with large black eyes and a guilty expression. "Nicky? Nicholas Gleason, what have you done now?" Frowning, the green mutant crossed his arms over his chest and peered down at the little boy in front of him.

"I found something!" He said quickly and it was then that Victor noticed the small pile of paper concealed behind the child's back.

"Found what?"

Nicholas hands were covered in mud and so were the knee's of his trousers. Victor tutted as the child pulled the papers from behind him and passed them over to Victor. "Was out side Miss Frosts office in the garden-"

"You're not supposed to dig out there Nick." Victor frowned but when he took the papers his frown became more perplexed. "Where…where did you get these?"

"Like I said. I was outside Miss Frost's office and I've got this great hole going. Anyway, she had the window open and there was this huge gust of wind and all the paper blew out of her window…what do they mean?"

In his hands Victor held what where clearly the photocopy's of some rather official and old looking documents. The top one read as follows:

_**RE: **__The treatment of subject DB42, AKA Weapon 4.2_

_On instructions from Mueller I make known the following;_

_Where Weapon 4.2 is brought up there may be no discussion of a future overall solution._

_It may, however, be mentioned that should the subject terminate then the appropriate steps are made to ensure the survival of the rest of the brood._

_Only one child is to be in circulation each time to easily cull without raising questions._

_Signed B Versenwald_

"Victor. Victor? Vic what does it mean, don't ignore me. Victor tell me!" Nicholas very nearly bounced around Victor's ankles as the colour drained from the green mutants face. He peered through the other pieces of paper before grabbing hold of the boy's hand and dragging him towards the art room.

"Victor? Where are going?" Nicholas questioned.

"Photocopier." Victor mumbled and looking down at the pieces of paper one of them came to his eyes more vividly than the others. A weak looking infant looked up at him from a slightly discoloured photograph. New born and hooked up to so many wires it was hard to think that it was real at all. But what made the boy's heart beat faster and faster in his chest where the little pale green eye's that stared up at him.

xxx

"We should leave now." Said the girls and Leeland whole-heatedly agreed with them. The twinkling stars around them begin to blink, causing the boy to stare around his surroundings with wide-open eye'. "What are they?" He whispered.

"They are Mummudrai. Non-corporeal parasites composed solely of emotional energy born from the astral plane."

"They're real?" Leeland asked, his voice a little high.

"Yes. According to an old myth, we are all created with a twin that we must fight inside the womb before birth. This is where they come from."

"…Can we leave…like right now?"

The girls nodded their heads and closed their eye's. Leeland did the same but it felt as if the eyes on the astral plane were upon him. The weightlessness returned before a more solid feeling poured into him and he felt as if lead had been placed in the bottom of his socks.

"C-can ah open my eye's yet?" He asked the girls and he felt relief when he heard his voice echo inside the pudding bowl like room. Peeking one eye open he gave a small gasp, watching as the bubble bobbed in front of him. They were back inside the Danger Room but it seemed the bubble of electric had followed them.

"Take it." Said the one directly in front of him but Leeland shook his head. "It's yours to take and yours to control, so just take it."

Sucking on his lip piercing, Leeland gingerly held out his jumper-covered hand. Extending his fingers he waited for the little bubble to come towards him.

"Do…do ah call it?" He asked, not quite sure whether he was looking at a mass of physic-electric energy or a small dog. It came towards him and rested in the crook of his fingers and warmth spread up and down his arms. It was then that he became aware of a feeling inside his mind of almost piece. The niggling behind his eyes was not as apparent as it had been before and a part of him felt relived while the other was sorely disappointed.

"The pains still there." He whispered, the light from the bubble illuminated his features, making his freckles blend into his pale skin.

"It will subside." The girls smiled and looked at each other in turn.

They had done their good deed for the day but the sun had barley risen. Perhaps when Miss Frost returned they would speak to her about what else they knew of the boy known as Leeland. Such a strange name, as if it had been plucked from someone else and given to the baby…

xxx

"Nicky, you've got to promise me that you won't tell anybody about this." Victor said seriously as they stood at the photocopier, sending the documents through to be duplicated.

"How come?" The little wolf asked. Victor turned towards him and decided to teat the boy more like an adult then he usually would. "Because we shouldn't have these and neither should Miss Frost. You want to find out why she has them, right?" He asked and Nicky nodded his head. "They're about Leeland?" He asked Victor who straightened up and gave a nod of his head. "I think so but no telling him either."

"How come, if it's about him?"

Victor chewed on the side of his lip before sighing and turning back towards the twelve year old. "Because he doesn't know about this and we need to find out why first. We can't go charging in if he doesn't know himself. What if he starts asking us questions and we can't answer them, he'd be very annoyed at us."

Nicholas thought about this before frowning, his bushy little eyebrows coming together with confusion. "But he won't like us any more if we kept it from him. You said that secrets like this are bad. I think we should tell him and I found the papers so I get to decide." Said the boy with a cocky tilt of his head. Victor gritted his teeth but he knew the child was partially correct. If they kept this from Leeland he would hate them for it once he did find out.

"We should ask Laura and Mr. Logan." Nicky suggested but Victor shook his head. "We'll ask Laura but not Mr. Logan…I don't want him knowing where you got these from. You have to promise to keep this between you and me for now Nicky, can you do that?" Victor held out his pinky finger and the wolf boy sighed and rolled his eyes before giving a small nod of his head. They linked their pinkys together in a promise before collecting up the duplicated papers.

"Now we need to put the originals back…"

xxx

The wind was cold, the ground hard under her feet but the girl took it all in her stride. She could fight in any condition; she had been programmed and trained for it.

"I bet I could hit that target from a mile away."

What she had not been trained for was a boy rambling in her ear while she was doing so. The mutant clone took a deep breath, clicked her neck to the side before repeating her unsheathed clawed back kick. The target in front of her was a poor old scarecrow they had knocked up with an old training uniform. With in seconds its stomach had been slashed to bits and the straw gore intestines fluttered delicately onto the hard ground below.

When Julian had asked Laura where she was heading to she had not expected the boy to follow her. But he had done so and now she felt as if Jiminy Cricket himself was sat up on her shoulder. Only this one was not her conscious but a small annoying reminder of her emotions and feelings. Oh she felt for Julian Keller but she was yet to piece everything together.

"Or not…" She heard him mutter causing the dark haired girl to lift her head up towards the tree that Julian was perched in. He smiled at her with his dentist straight teeth, a dazzling white Beverley Hills grin. They were an odd couple, if that was what they were. They had kissed only once and even then it had been brief. Since then, the boy had followed her about, befriending her she supposed. But she knew she scared the hell out of him…and that frightened her.

"Do you want to do something tonight? We could go to the movies?" Julian was trying, really trying to make some sort of go at a relationship with Laura, even if it was not on a romantic scale. They had not started out on good terms but things were different now or at least he hoped so.

"No." Laura replied quite bluntly and Julian felt his chest deflate. "The school is on red alert, it would be quite unwise for us to leave. Otherwise…yes, the movies would have been nice."

At her reply Julian grinned once again and gave a small nod of his head. "Maybe next time."

Nodding her head, Laura turned back towards her targets and shifted her position. Perhaps she would work on her Karate skills but she would have preferred a moving target and Logan was busy. But something caught her attention and she sniffed upwards.

To be truthful, that still freaked Julian out. That she could simply sniff the air and know who was turning the corner. It made sneaking up on her both hard and pointless.

"It's Victor and the small fuzzy child."

"He has a name Laura." Julian smirked and he was certain that she had frowned at him. "He's…a handful."

"He's a kid. Kid's are annoying, he'll grown out of it."

"I was not annoying." Came her honest reply and the boy sighed, giving a small shake of his head. Sometimes she was too precious for words. Not that he would ever tell her that.

"S'up Vic?" Julian slipped down from the low tree branch he had been sat upon, hitting the hard ground with a soft thud. Pulling his jacket further around his body he noted the serious expression on his friends face and even Nicholas looked less hyper than he usual did.

"We have a problem." The green mutant said in a flat tone, the small pile of duplicate papers held firmly in his grasp.

Ten minutes later found all four of them sat inside the overgrown forest that was located at the back of the estate. It was one of the wolf boy's favourite places as he could dig away to his hearts content inside the secluded canopy. There where no expensive flowers he could dig up and be punished for….

Laura sat on a clear piece of ground with the papers spread in front of her; the others sat or stood around her as she read silently.

"Well?" Asked Victor, nervousness seeped into his voice causing Julian to arch an eyebrow at him.

"Your suspicions I feel are confirmed. Leeland was apparently apart of the Weapon Plus program." She looked up from the documentation spread before her, her green eyes meeting his own.

"Wait, hold up." Julian frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The same people that made you, then made him too?"

"No." Said Victor quietly. "They made him first…he's two years older than Laura." A silence fell across the little group of mutants and the wind howled through the trees as if demanding attention.

"Perhaps not." Laura added as she looked back down at the papers in front of her. "4.2 does not follow the correct order of the weapons made. There have been fifteen separate programs. Logan is ten where as the cuckoo's are fourteen."

"Then what are you?" Asked Nicky and Laura looked at him for a moment and it seemed something less that human peered out from behind her eyes. The little wolf shuffled behind Victor ever so slightly.

"I am neither. After twenty-two failed attempts at creating a clone of the original weapon X, I was the only one successful. I do not fit around the program. 4.2 suggests to me that perhaps this is not your new friend Victor but one made before or after him. But I could be wrong and it could be him."

"I'm…confused." Frowned Nicky.

"You're not the only one." Julian mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.

"What does this mean?" Victor pried the little boy from around his waist and crouched next to Laura, pointing at a suspicious looking title of one of the pages. "Black Womb…I've heard of that, I'm sure." He mumbled the last as Laura brought the sheet of paper to the top of the pile.

"I…I missed that." Laura frowned, her tone still emotionless but she peered at the paper and looked straight ahead at Victor. "Amanda Mueller ran the Black Womb project. Their goal was to study the development of mutants. They had a non-interference policy and did not interfere with the development of the children even if they came across repairable genetic flaws. Infants…they specialised in infants."

Another silence fell across the teenagers and Julian shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

"Lee…He said he never knew his Mom and that…that he wasn't so sure his dad was his real dad. Said they look nothing alike." What had been an offhanded comment before now seemed more sinister.

"And who else has eye's that colour." Julian pointed at the picture of the sickly looking infant, possibly now older than three months.

"So he's not the first mutant since M-Day. He's like one of us, kept his powers." Nicky spoke up and the others mumbled their agreements.

"His father gave him drugs to make sure his mutation never got out. What if one of these Weapon Plus people, a scientist who helped made him but then got cold feet about it?" Julian suggested but Laura shook her head.

"No one get's cold feet." She said quietly. "They just die."

xxx

"Erm guys….girls?" Leeland balanced the little bubble in his hands as he followed them from the Danger Room, wondering what on Earth he was going to do with it. "Don't tell anyone about this, ok?" He asked them to which they complied with a smile a nod of their heads. "If you do not talk about our trip to the astral plane?"

Leeland nodded his head so quickly that he was surprised it didn't simply fall off. "Ah just wanna keep this to me for a little bit, see if ah can figure it out on my own. I erm, ah can't seem to get rid of it." Neither could he figure out what it was supposed to do but he supposed he could treat it like a brand new gadget, a puzzle that needed to be solved. Yes, that seemed the most logical way to go about the problem now sitting in his hand.

The only real thing wrong with keeping the bubble of energy secret was the fact that he couldn't get rid of it.

"Little help?" He asked the Cuckoo's with a sheepish smile, head tilted towards the bubble cupped in his hands.

"Tell it to go away." The girls suggested before they turned as one and headed down the corridor without him.

"Huh?" The blonde frowned and looked down at the bubble. Of course he would feel foolish for trying but it was not as if he could disguise it as a bouncy ball. "Urm…shoo. Go away." He whispered to it but nothing happened. Rolling his eye's he let the bubble roll to the ground and it surprised him when the thing bounced back.

"Look, ah really haven't got time for this and you're kinda 'ard to 'ide out in the open like this." With an irritated sigh the boy threw the bubble as hard as he could towards the nearest wall. Upon impact, the bubble shattered and spat angry electricity before it dispersed into nothing.

"Well…" Leeland blinked, shocked by what he had just seen and that it had been he who had done it. "That's one way to do it."

xxx

Not one of the teenagers knew what to do for neither one of them was in charge. There where no more teams, no more team leaders. They were all in it together and so had to come up with the conclusion as a whole. It came down to two simple options; they either told Leeland or they didn't.

"You don't get a vote pipsqueak, you're only twelve." Julian shot at Nicholas who huffed and kicked his foot into the ground. "I train like everyone else!" He whined causing Julian to roll his eyes, his hands shoved deep into his coat pocket.

"Pff big whoop. You have a bed time, you don't a vote on something like this-"

"-I'll bite you and then we'll see!"

"STOP IT!" Victor shouted. It silenced the pair of them and Victor lifted his eyes towards the telekinetic boy. "He get's a vote like the rest of us but…I want to say first that this feels wrong. We should just tell him." That was Victors firm belief, that something this big should not be kept from his new friend.

"But…what if he get's all pissed about it." Nicholas said with a small shrug. "And he goes on a killing rampage and…stuff." He said sheepishly when the three older children began to stare at him.

"See." Said Julian, holding his hand out to make a point. "This is why he shouldn't have a vote."

"Nicholas does bring up a good point." The three boys looked at the one girl who had collected the papers back together and now held them in her own arms. "We do not know this boy, we do not know what he is capable of."

"That's not fair." Victor frowned with a shake of his head. "We tell him, we don't need a vote."

"So much for a democracy." Julian scoffed with a shrug of his shoulders. "Laura's right, we don't know this guy. He's a little…weird and spacey and-"

"And Laura killed people! You trust her." Victor felt the words spill form his mouth before he even had a chance to speak. The colour drained from his dark haired friends face and even the wolf child fell silent at the side.

"Stop judging people Julian, stop judging him! Maybe if you got to know him you'd see that he's not spacey, he's lost. No vote, I'm telling him." With a look back at the three, the boy stalked away from his friends with old leaves crushing under his hurried footsteps.

Julian turned to stare at Victor's receding form and kicked the dirt at his feet in annoyance. "Gesh, you'd think he was dating the guy!"

Nicholas huffed and stalked over to Laura, taking the papers from her loose grip. "Well what if he is?" The little boy shrugged and sneezed down his nose at the pair, it was one of those involuntary dog like notions that happened to him every so often.

"Shut up pipsqueak, no one asked you."

"One day Julian I'm gonna be like Mr. Logan and then you're gonna be sorry. Besides, who found the file in the first place? Me, that's who so shut up you have stupid hair!" And with that, the little boy hurried after Victor, calling his name as he did so.

Julian clenched his hands at his side as anger contorted his body. He wanted to run after the little fuzz ball and give him a good telling of, or a rather hard shake. What annoyed him though was Victor's strange behaviour and the sudden liking he had taken towards the pale blonde mutant. How could someone bond with another person they had known less that a week? But in his brooding rage he had yet to realise what was happening with Laura.

A smile had spread across her usual stony expression and with it came a sound that Julian could only describe as near magical, if not heavenly. As joyous laughter escaped from her throat and she had to steady her self. Arms around her stomach, giggles escaped from her mouth. Julian was not quite sure how to react but staring in disbelief seemed to be a good idea.

It was music to his ears, snow on Christmas morning and kittens with whiskers. This was why he liked Laura. She scared the hell out of him, but these where the moments to be treasured.

"I…I was going to say yes Victor. Victor! Victor I was going to vote yes!" The little wolf mutant whined as he jogged to keep up with the older mutant.

The green mutant regarded his young friend for a second before he couldn't help smiling at him. He slowed down as the pair of them trekked back across the winter frozen lawn and a silence fell around them. That was before excitement got the better of the child and he blurted his question.

"So are we going to tell him or not?"

Victor composed himself and took the papers from Nicholas's arm and held them close to his own chest. "We'll go see him and then if it comes up…"

"But you said-"

"I know!...I…" Victor sighed and stopped in mid stride in his brisk walk, letting his head drop down to his chest. Telling Leeland was the right thing to do but what if they had the wrong end of the stick? What if it wasn't him and the eye colour was simply a big coincidence. Ah yes but life was full of "What If's"…

Victor turned and looked down at the little boy in front of him who had barely grown an inch since he was nine years old.

"I'll speak to him."

"But-"

"Nicholas…Nicky." The little boy always complained how he was never treated like the others, always the baby of the group.

"When your Mom and Dad died, a lady came to your school and told your teachers, right? Then nearly everybody else knew but you…"

Nicholas kicked his feet into the ground lightly with the toe of his trainer and gave a slight nod his fuzzy head. "It hurt, didn't it?" Victor asked and again the boy gave a slight nod of his head. "They should have told you from the start, not waited until you were the last person to tell. You were, you are, the most important person in your parents life."

"So…" Started Nicholas, he was a smart boy. If anyone could figure it out it would be him. "So you don't want him to be the last to know, people shouldn't be crowding him?"

Victor smiled at him, it was all he had to do and his tiny friend gave a sigh and a nod of his head. "I suppose you're right." They began to walk again when nothing else was said. When they came to the door, Victor felt a tugging on his arm.

"Victor, will you make my lunch for me today?"

"Of course."

"With Salami and pickles, 'cos you're the only one who'll do it right."

Grinning, Victor agreed and they made their way into the warmth of their school, their home.

xxx

An average flight from New York to England would take an airline on average seven to eight hours. Luckily for Emma and Scott, they where not with an airline. Fortunately for them, Stark's private jet could rival their own but they proffered their own means of transport. Besides, the less contact Scott and Tony had, the better Emma would feel about the whole thing. Not that she was at all bothered about the husband and the ex in the same small bit of space. Heavens forbid if she batted away the attention.

No, she was not quite prepared for Tony to start talking about the boy again as if he was hers. That conversation was not coming up and if it did then she would certainly be putting a stop to it.

Dangerous talk, that's what it was.

However, she knew more questions would begin to surface once they found Jonathon Williams. Not that she had seen the man for almost fifteen years.

"You're thinking again."

It had not accrued to her that Scott had been staring her way for the past ten or so minutes while she brooded with her thoughts.

"Hmm." Pulling her self out of trance like state, the blonde turned her head ever so slightly and yawned behind her delicate manicured hand.

"These plane rides bore me darling. They give me too much time to think."

"So…" Scott clicked the auto pilot button next to him and turned in his seat to face her. "Why don't we talk?"

Emma frowned but then something more bemused flashed across her face and she wanted to laugh. "It seems all we've done in the past few weeks is Talk. Either that are argue…or you sulk."

"I do not sulk!" Scott protested but his disgust soon turned into amusement. Tilting his head to the side he regarded her yet again and wondered what she was thinking. It was hard, being married to a woman who could read his mind. Even harder still was that he had done it twice now but Jean and Emma were so different, sometimes it was hard for him to believe they had very nearly the same ability's. He knew what drew him to Jean…she was older than him, more of a mother type figure after his years of loneliness at the orphanage. She had been his best friend, his lover, his wife.

But life happens and it never goes quite the way you plan. Then came Emma and she was…different. Her sarcasm knew no bounds and her wit could be matched by no one. A wild card, that was what she was. Someone different who completed his life. Well, almost. Not everyone was perfect.

"You're hiding something." He told her and she turned to argue with him but Scott simply raised his hand. "Please…I'm getting old Emma but I'm not stupid. But it's ok because I know you'll tell me or I'll find out, either way."

Emma was silent before she shifted her gaze downwards, a sad smile upon her face. "Isn't that always the way." She said quietly and lifted her head to find Scott leaning towards her.

"You'll hate me." She whispered, disgusted at the way she felt. But though her personality was icy at the best of times, she wasn't heartless and no one knew that better than her husband.

"And what reason would I have to hate you, apart from your obvious flaws?" Then came the smirk and he leaned forward, their lips merging as one. "…Why Mister Summers…" Emma whispered, their lip's parting for mere seconds. "I do believe I'm beginning to be a bad influence on you."

The grin came again and Scott shook his head. "I can see you looking at me, and wondering. Don't, please. We work as well as we do because we know and trust each other. The moment we withdraw that trust - start to be afraid that the enemy is among us – we loose."

"I'm not the enemy Scott." Emma whispered, her hands spreading across his shoulders, down his arms and towards his torso.

"But I'll know…before we head back home, I'll know."

"Yes." She nodded her head, of course he would know. "And you'll still hate me."

"Nah. I might not like you for a while, but we'll wait it out hmm?"

"Speaking of waiting. How about you let this fly itself for, hmmm, twenty minutes?" She leaned forward as far as her body would let her without slipping down to the ground. Emma Frost was a lot of things but clumsy was not a word she associated with. Chewing on the side of her lip she let Scott slip his hands around her waist, pulling her gently into his lap. Emma rolled her eyes. Honestly, she wasn't a piece of glass but she found it sweet in an annoying way.

But that was Scott. A lovely annoying leader who knew his place…sometimes.

xxx

"Take your trainers off and don't just shove them on your floor. Last time Miss. Pride went into your room she had to phase next door to stop herself being lobotomised."

Nicholas rolled his eyes and gathered his trainers up before muttering and heading down the corridor. "Yes mom." He heard him chunter but it only made Victor smirk. Practicing what he preached, the green mutant gathered up his own trainers and slipped his sandals onto his cold feet. Really, he should have worn socks but they had the awkward tendency to snag on his toes.

Leeland had been watching from afar, hiding behind one of the corners with his fingers pressed against the wall. He wasn't snooping, merely making an observation and he found that he smiled softly whenever his eye's rested upon his new friend.

The little wolf child came shuffling down the corridor, trying to build up friction with his socks on the floor runner. It wasn't working as well as he hoped and Leeland ushered him over towards the corner he was peering behind.

"Hey Lee!" The little boy shouted with excitement but Leeland hushed him quickly with his finger pushed up against his own lips.

"Where've you been then?" The blonde asked the child who shrugged his shoulders with a closed lip smile. "No where. Just went for a walk with Victor. I'm not allowed to dig the garden up so we went to the forest. You look tired." Nicholas peered up at the other mutant who was very nearly a foot and a half taller than his short four-foot odd frame. But the boy took comfort in the fact that one-day he would be as big as his friends; he still had room to grow.

"Ah feel it." Leeland admitted with a nod of his head, running a hand through his bedraggled hair and it looked as if it could do with another wash. Not that the blonde would realise until he could start frying chips with the grease it would accumulate.

As Victor made his way down the corridor he saw his young friend talking to a gap in the wall. With an arch of his eyebrow he hurried along to see what the boy was up too when Nicholas turned suddenly. "-And Victor has something to tell you. Bye!" And with that he hurried down the hallway and up the stairs as fast as he could.

"Nicholas!" Victor huffed through gritted teeth when he realised that Leeland had been occupying the space in the wall. For a moment, he forgot about the files secluded behind his back and tilted his head at Leeland. "Were you hiding?" He questioned and marveled at how the colour rushed to the other boys cheeks.

"I uhh…no." Replied the British boy rather unconvincingly and decided to shift tactics. "What do yah need to tell me?" He asked, his mind racing and running to conclusions that he himself still could not be sure off. It seemed now that every time he heard Victor's name, saw his picture on the wall of merely thought about him his heart would very nearly skip a beat. It was frustrating and he had tried to put it out of his mind and concentrate on what the girls had told him about the "bubble". That thought alone was freaking him out more than usual. That there was something inside of him he could bring out and use. Might as well have steak knives in his hands and called it quits but he was rather certain that ability was taken.

"Uhh." It was Victor's turn to look flustered, frowning ever so slightly. "Nothing really. Well, it is something, maybe…Let's go upstairs."

"Sure." Leeland shoved his hands deep into his pockets to stop his fiddling and they headed upstairs. He wondered what was so important to tell that they couldn't speak downstairs. At once his mind began to race with scenarios and many of them had him panicking.

It was a silly schoolboy crush, Leeland knew that now, but the feeling certainly didn't stop and wouldn't even if Victor rejected him. Just because his preference was male didn't mean they would pair up as quick as they could. After all, it had been less than a week and they knew nothing about each other, not really. His favourite colour, food drink- Leeland couldn't say. What made him tick, made him smile…he could only hazard a guess. No one could base a relationship on lust, could they? Now he was thinking of a relationship! His mind was on autopilot, his feet barely able to keep up with his ragged pace.

Once inside Victor's room, the green mutant shrugged his jacket to the bed, all the while with his fingers clutching the brown paper file.

"Homework?" Leeland asked, once he realised that his over active imagination needed to change the record. But seeing him pull himself up onto the bed, crossing his legs with the file resting in his lap made him think back to that morning. So close, his lips grazing across his well-formed chest…made him want to shudder and collapse to the floor in a big gooey blonde puddle.

"Erm, not exactly." He muttered quietly but decided he needed to hurry up and get it out of the way. "Nicky shouldn't really have blurted that out but…I…" could Victor really do it though? Would he be the one to inform this boy, that he barely knew, that his life was not as it seemed. Was it cruel to keep it from him, or was it kinder to let him live in denial?

"Victor?" Leeland frowned, finding a little courage to perch on the edge of the bed.

"This…It might be a big coincidence but we found this. It belongs to you…we think." He handed the file over and Leeland took it with a small frown before slipping the papers into his hands.

"It's about a mutant program they used to run years ago…" He heard the green mutant somewhere in the corner of his mind but it seemed like everything around him fell silent. Yet at the same time, a great noise arose inside of him. As if the lid of a thousand creeping ants was just lifted and he could hear each and everyone of them.

With heart pounding and his stomach nearly at his feet he let his eye's read across the various documents before him, all official and military standard by the look of them. What concerned him was not the jargon they had used or it's manner of the presentation but the photograph he held in his hand.

"W...What do you mean...I-Ah don't think ah follow." He frowned, biting his lips together in frustration. This pale and sickly looking baby in his hands certainly could not have been him, could it? He knew who he was...didn't he.

It was too sudden, too much too soon and what he had wanted Victor to say had not been said. At once the file slipped from his knees and crashed to floor in silence. Pulling his legs up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them as they began to shake.

Victor bit his own lips, held down his own tongue until he could think of the correct response. But as his new friend hid his face away, he found himself unable to think of anything comforting to say other than perhaps they had made a mistake. So he unwound his legs and brought himself closer to Leeland, wondering if perhaps a hand to shoulder was the right approach.

The blonde was silent. No tears filled his eyes but he did not want to look at those papers. He did not want to have to read those words ever again because of the implications that came with them. However, in a small voice he addressed the only person he could.

"What am I?"

There were no shouts of anger, or cry's of rage. Only a bewildered boy who lifted his head and found himself suddenly so very tired.

Victor had no response and so they sat in their silence, separate.

The worst part of it all was that Leeland had suspected it all along. There was something amiss in his father's back story.

xxx

"I don't know about you dear, but this country makes me feel so...dull." Emma frowned as she stepped down from the jet's gangway, pulling her jacket more firmly around her shoulders. There was not a blue sky in sight, only a dismal grey that kept the threat of rain on every ones head.

"Might not want to mention that to either Leeland…or Megan."

"She's Welsh, I don't think it counts." Emma frowned as she watched Stark stride across the airfield their two separate jets had landed in. Neither X-men or Iron Man were in their uniforms and she hoped it would not be too serious that she would have to change…again.

But seeing the so stern look on Tony's face and the small gathering of S.H.I.E.L.D personal he had fairly fluttering around him made her wonder what on Earth could have gone wrong already. They had been in the country barely five minutes.

"I thought this was supposed to be quiet?" Scott asked with a frown and Emma felt her own facial features contorting. "It was." Came her reply. "This must be bigger than we first thought dear…Either that, or Tony's showing off again."

"Tony?" Emma questioned when Tony was close enough.

"Emma, Scott." he gave a curt nod to both before he got down to business. "We have a problem."

"I can see that Tony. Is this all the _Bucket O Soldiers_ or have you left some at home?" Emma tilted her head to the side, her eye's flickering up and down the nearest armed man.

"I wouldn't have thought it necessary if it was a different man but you've been keeping secrets Emma. There is no Jonathon Williams, that name…the person doesn't exist. But Johnny McCorby does…and he's a wanted man." If this were ever a time that Tony was not amused, it would be now.

"So he changed his name…Not my problem but we came to an agreement Tony. You give us the boy's father and we may be able to persuade the mutant population, what's left of it, to join this little cause of yours."

"What cause?" Scott frowned, stepping down off the gangway to inch his way through armed personnel. "Emma, we didn't agree to anything."

"The key word Scott was may…we _may_ be able to but even I don't know what you have up you corrugated sleeve now do I Tony?"

Tony was silent for a few moments and raised his hands towards his mouth as he thought about his next few steps. "Did you know about McCorby?"

Emma frowned, not quite the question she had expected but the woman was oh so clever. Instead of answering, she smiled and began to walk away from their little gathering. "If you're not going to help us Tony then you can forget any deal in the making. I'm a busy woman…." She turned towards the two men in her life, both past and present and let the smile falter for a moment. "Besides. I feel I may be wanted once I'm through with him."

**TBC~**


	10. Sciento Magician

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 21/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 10:** Sciento-Magician

"What's the problem then?" Emma stood with her feet apart with her hands on her hips. They peered up and down the warehouse in front of them. It was a large brick building, one of several on a disused industrial estate. Leeland's father was, presumably, hidden inside the one directly in front of them. However, they were not permitted to step inside without Tony's permission. The White Queen was having a hard time being told "no" and was even more disgruntled considering the situation was not even a life of death matter.

"Magic." Came Tony's rather sparse reply, causing Emma to frown and then inwardly groan. "Intel says he had a partner years ago, a warlock but any records of him died about fourteen year's ago."

One of the S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers moved forwards and nudged his hands up against the brick wall of the destitute building. A shock of bright blue and purple light struck him, hurtling him backwards several feet into a small army clad heap on the ground.

"Well…" Emma started. "You might want to re-check your records."

"Emma." Scott placed his hand on his wife's shoulder and peered down at her. "Maybe this should be a full team effort?" He questioned, all about ready to jump back into the jet to change into his infamous head to toe covered uniform. Shaking her head, Emma stepped forward with a smile over her shoulder to both men. "Oh please. We don't need the full entourage down here just to talk to one man…he's not _that_ dangerous."

xxx

Leeland had not moved from Victor's room but the papers where back in his hands. No longer on the bed, he had slipped down onto the carpet, knee's still painfully tucked up against his chest. It was nothing against the hurt he was feeling inside, the numbness that washed over his very being.

It was peculiar because the boy was rather sure there should have been some kind of rage pouring from him. Part of him wanted to scream and shout, demand answers from people who knew no more than he did. Instead, a strange sort of calm had washed over him. That he had been correct all along. All that niggling in the back of his mind that he was not who every one told him he was. That his father was not his father, he couldn't be and now there was proof in his hands.

The door clicked open and slowly closed behind. Victor entered his own room looking sheepish and out of place. In his hands he held two glasses of apple juice. Knowing he was hopeless at making tea, he'd gone for the second option instead. Not that he would be surprised if Leeland simply left it, it didn't really matter. For some reason it seemed important but the green hued boy could not help this one with food like he could with Nick or candy with Megan.

Sitting down in front of the blonde, he set both glasses of juice to the side and regarded them for longer than he meant too.

"Who else knows?" Having not expected Leeland to talk, Victor peered at him with a bewildered expression before staring down at the ground. Playing with a loose strand of carpet, he composed his thoughts.

"Nicky found them, showed them too me. I…I wasn't sure what to do and Laura knows more about this stuff than, well, any of us. We went to ask what she thought…and Julian was there." He murmured, feeling Leeland's piercing glare upon him.

"Great." Said the blonde quietly. "So everyone else knew before me?" It came out through gritted teeth and closed eye's making Victor frown as two separate feelings clashed together inside his mind.

"It might not even be you Lee! We-it might be a big-wait…what are you doing?" Leeland had pulled his jumper over his head and threw it to the side of the room. Then he started on his shirt, moving the fabric across his painfully thin frame. At first, Victor had mused that the rather emancipated form of his new friend was simply in his genes, now he was not so sure. It seemed as if something darker was going on with the boy's body.

There, on his left shoulder was small blotch of orange tinted skin. A cluster of tiny little freckles made up a small birthmark, so insignificant that it had previously gone unnoticed.

"Now tell me who it is."

On the slightly grainy photo, upon the infants shoulder was the same little band of freckles. It was Leeland, there was no mistaking it.

"That's why ah know." The blonde let his head fall back onto the bed, the pieces of paper clutched loosely in his hands. He was tired and the ache behind his eyes had returned ten fold since his trip to the astral plane.

Victor did not know what to do or how to go about anything. Instead, he picked up his own glass of juice and held it between his knee's, waiting for Leeland to decide.

"Yah found it in Frost's office, right?" He finally asked and Victor nodded. "Nicky was digging outside, said they blew out of the window." He frowned at this, wondering how several pieces of paper managed to blow out of one window and conveniently into a waiting child's arms. But he could ponder about that some other time. Right then, he needed to watch Leeland. Not that he didn't trust him but Nicky was right; what if he did go on some kind of rampage?

"Right then." The blonde got to his feet and struggled back into his t-shirt. "Then'll ask the rest of the staff. Ah knew they were 'iding summat from me. Ah knew it!" And with that, he stalked over towards Victor's bedroom door leaving the green hued mutant still sat upon the floor.

The apple juice lay forgotten. It was Paras' favourite, he would not have forgotten it.

xxx

"Come along Johnny, we're all big boys and girls here let's play fair." Emma called to the building, the glint of Tony's red and yellow suit shone in the corner of her eye. Not that she was paying too much attention to the men now. They could debate and argue amongst themselves for the best strategy, but she already had one.

The walls spat again but Emma merely tutted as her skin and hair turned to shimmering diamond.

"Kwon Sier, is that you?" She smirked, setting her hand up against the brickwork and watched as the magic tried to remove her. It spat angrily but Emma refused to budge, after all, you cannot hurt what cannot feel.

"Oh I shut the feeling out long ago magic man, so let me in." Still not budging, Emma found herself frowning in frustration. Never before had the pair been so difficult so she decided to use a tactic she was not best pleased about.

"We have Leeland, Johnny. He's safe." She stood back and watched as the magic died down around the building and the S.H.I.E.L.D operatives prepared to make their move. However, Tony held up one iron clad fist and the men stopped in their tracks. "Wait for my order, we'll take it from here for now. Team one, you're with me. I want guns on stun, men."

As they where about to embark into the warehouse, Scott came from behind and took a firm grip on Emma's elbow. Holding her back from the on storm of the building, he hissed into her ear. "What are you playing at Emma! Making deals with Stark that know one else knows about?"

Wrenching her arm from his grip, she scowled at her husband before turning away from him. "It was the only way I could get his help. I needed Stark to find his father."

"So you lied? You keep on lying Emma-to me." Scott shook his head and she knew the emotion upon his face, it was pity. He pitied her and she hated him for it, in fact she hated her self more for it.

"And one day I'll cry Wolf! Wolf! And no one will come running. Yes, yes darling I've heard it all before. But we're on a mission here, we are _not_ a married couple here." She turned on him. "Here, we are partners."

"So start acting like it." Scott retorted through gritted teeth and stalked on past her into the depths of the warehouse.

Team one charged the building with Tony and Scott up front and Emma brining up the lonely rear. That irritated her but she was sure it was nothing compared to the annoyance both her former and current lover would feel soon enough.

No secrets. If their relationship had one rule it was that there were no secrets and no shame.

Unfortunately there were plenty of both of those to go around.

The warehouse was made up of old industrial wooden crates and the odd barrel here and there. What was conceived in those barrels? No one was in a hurry to find out. It was a large place to hide, even bigger to get lost in. Out in the open, they all stood like sitting ducks waiting for one rather dubious man to make his appearance. However, Emma knew that was not about to happen. They had let them in; it was their way of replying to her tactic about the boy. Apart from that, they were all certainly cannon fodder.

Leeland's father was nowhere in sight and neither was his dubious partner in crime. Though Emma had a strange feeling that perhaps it was not Kwon Sier causing the magical disturbance. She called it a hunch but she decided to conduct her own sweep of the building.

Placing her hands upon her temple, she closed her eyes and sifted through the mass of thoughts that swam around the open space of the dusty building. There, amongst the confusion she spotted two forms, one of them unknown to her yet familiar at the same time. The other she knew in and instance but he was rather good at warding off psychic attacks, even a mere sweep that usually went unnoticed.

Click…

To late, she was too slow.

A round of gunfire was let off close to her head, causing her to break her concentration. It was painful to let go of something she had already attached herself to, a metaphor she had used more than once. In a desperate attempt to find Williams/McCorby before the S.H.I.E.L.D agents she rounded on one of the crates and lifted it quite easily into the air. Ahh yes, the advantage of a second mutation, super strength and boy did she need it right then. Without batting an eyelid she heaved the wooden frame up into the air and watched as one single shot fired at it. The agents had watched her do it…Leeland's father hadn't.

"Letting your guard down already Jonathon, you've gone soft."

What Emma was not prepared for was the reload of the semi automatic behind her.

_Click!_

"Emma, I always did picture you covered in diamonds. Looks like money really is in you genes after all." An Irish accent spoke behind her, the cold metal of a gun pressed up against the back of her neck. She smiled and kept still as the S.H.I.E.L.D solders turned their guns towards her with a click and rupture of shouting.

"PUT THE GUN DOWN! YOU HAVE ONE WARNING BEFORE WE TAKE ACTION! NOW!"

Emma raised her hands in front of her. "There'll be no need for that, gentleman." The smile would not fall from her face; in fact it seemed to grow when Scott looked upon her, fear radiating from him. After all the years of fighting, she was glad there was still something inside that could scare him.

"Where's my boy Emma?"

"You mean the child you placed in the metal institute?"

"Cut the bull, Frost! He was admitted to A & E and you couldn't wait to get your hands back on him. We had a deal."

"And I kept that deal!" The smile faltered, her teeth gritted as she frowned. She wondered if a bullet really would penetrate her diamond form from such a close range. He was so close behind her that she was sure that if it were not for the diamond hard skin, she would be able to feel his breath upon her. "I've stayed away for almost fifteen dammed years and this is how you repay me? Drugging him….of all the things you could do-"

The gun clicked again, the safety was off.

It happened in a flash of red light. The gun was knocked from the assailant's hand and Emma watched as it slid away and behind her. Next came the swarm of bullets that soared towards her. If they hit her, she had no recollection…after all, wasn't she a heartless unfeeling bitch? Ah yes, she would never forget those three little words. One for each of the years she visited a tiny little blonde child whose face would brighten with delight each time.

He _was_ a mummy's boy after all.

xxx

"Leeland! Leeland wait up!" After pulling himself up off the floor, Victor had sped after Leeland as fast as he could run. "What are you going to do, what if no one knows anything?" Pleading seemed to be the only tactic that would come to the green hued mutant. Short of holding him back, or knocking him unconscious, there was not much more he could do.

"Oh they know." Said Leeland with a firm nod. "They know all this shit about me already, didn't even need me to talk to 'em." He turned in his fast pace walk and tapped the side of his head. "Don't know 'ow they did it but ah know they got inside. I know it!" But he was only deluding himself and when he turned around, the anger left his face and was replaced by something softer, a little more timid and frightened. But the boy ploughed on, knowing he had too and the pair of them made their way down to the subbasement.

"And what are going to say, what are you going to ask?" Victor frowned, his arms crossed over his chest as they stood in the elevator. The blonde was a twitching mess, writhing his hands back and forth in front of him, pulling at each and every digit painfully. "Dunno but ah'm pretty sure ah'll think of summat." He mumbled, the papers safely tucked under his arms. He no longer wanted to look at them even though it was the cause of his frustration. Nausea crept into him slowly and he began to feel both warm and cold at the same time but the boy pushed past it.

"Leeland think about this! They're good people. Sure they fuck up but they don't know any more than you do." He tried to reason with him, went as far as to place his hands upon his arm. It stopped the boy for a moment or two and he regarded that green hued hand for longer than he was supposed to. "You said it yourself. Kid's come 'ere to be protected, yet you've got a graveyard behind the basket ball court." He shrugged the hand away and made his way down the metallic corridor.

Victor simply stood there, his hand lowered to his side. As much as he hated him for say it, Leeland was right. How could the X-men claim safety at the school when nearly all he knew was loss and death? Still, that didn't mean the teachers knew…they couldn't! …Could they?

As he hung from the rafters with a paper file in one hand, a pen in the other, Beast pondered on just when Emma and Scott were going to check in with them. They had, of course, all opted to go but Emma had made it quite clear that only the two of them should head out. In fact, he was rather sure that she had not even wanted Scott there. But then again, Emma always had been the strange one of the party. No one knew whether or not she could be yet trusted but they were all free men and woman. They could come and go as they pleased but no one had yet stormed out due to the White Queen so all was rather quiet on the western front.

_BANG!_

Well, there went his peace and quiet. "Coming, coming." Muttered the large blue mutant, making his way down and towards a more civilized position.

When he turned, the great Beast had not expected Leeland to be stood there with his features contorted anger. It looked as if his face had not been quite made for the emotion. There was a paper file clutched in his hands.

"Lee-" The man started but the blonde simply threw the file on his desk and raised his eyes towards the man. "Go on then, spill it. What else 'ave yah been keepin' from me?"

xxx

Leeland's father was a big man; at least that was how Scott would describe him. He was built the same way Peter was, tall and large. Stocky, not fat. Apart from the height, there was nothing else that would indicate that this man was the father to the English boy sat back in his home country. They had him bound in one of Starks electronic handcuffs and with enough guns pointed at him to take out a small village.

Despite this Emma knew the dangerous one was still out there in the depths of the warehouse. There was simply no point sending out a team to look for the assailant; magic users were good at slipping from the radar.

"Alright Jonathon…I'm waiting." Emma pulled up an old broken crate and perched herself on it. Legs crossed neatly at the knee she waited patiently for the man in front of her to begin his pleading, but he only glared at her with his grey eye's. "Where is he Emma?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Safe." Came her reply. "More than I can say for the situation we found him in."

"Why did you put him in the metal ward? With strict instructions to let no one see him?" Questioned Scott but the reply he received was not what he had been expecting. The man let a smirk cross his features before he began to laugh.

"What's so amusing?" Tony asked. He had been rather quiet apart from the odd bark of order at a solider here and there. After all, he was merely along for the drama…never could quite get enough of that.

"As well as your uniforms, quite a few things. I never put him in the hospital." He frowned at Emma, tilting his head to the side. "You haven't changed." He told her, but she remained silent.

"If you didn't put him in the hospital, than who did?" Though the question was directed at Williams, Scott turned his attention towards Emma who simply shook her head. "I can't read his mind Scott…he's too good for that."

"The same way you can't read the boy's?" He asked, but she shook her head silently. "Did you teach him, or did you put the block in there yourself."

"Ahh." Started Jonathon. "You two a couple, hmm? I wasn't sure at first, what with the _Campbell's_ soup can over here?" He grinned, tilting his head towards Tony. "But I bet she hasn't told you."

Scott frowned. "Told me what?"

"Stop it." Emma said quietly.

"No." Jonathon snapped his head towards Emma, a scowl set on his old face. "You broke our deal Emma. It's only fair I get to do it as well." Pettiness seemed to be the game of the hour.

"Emma…?" Tony stepped forward but she waved her hand at him, dismissing his concern. "Send your men out Stark." She sounded tired.

After the S.H.I.E.L.D men were sent to join the two other teams to sweep the parameter, the four of them stared at each other in silence. Emma kept herself to herself, hands clutched to her knee's with her head bowed, like a naughty child seeking redemption.

"Get on with it then you smarmy little insect." She spoke through gritted teeth.

"I raised that boy for near on eighteen years…and I'm the insect? I used to tell him he was lot like his mother. Same attitude, same stubborn streak that always assumes it's right." Jonathon turned towards Scott. "Didn't she tell you? Emma and I have a son."

xxx

The blue beast frowned at first before taking the papers in his own hands. Amber eye's scanned across the pages but the expression upon his face was not what Leeland had expected. There was clearly shock etched onto his cat like features but the blonde frowned; he simply wouldn't believe that they didn't all know.

"Is this it! Is this what yah do! You're keeping me 'ere an' away from everyone else 'cos you know'll ah'll do summat! What if ah was on that drug to keep people safe an' you…yah took it away." In frustration he grabbed the side of his head, fingers entangled in his hair. The pulling and tugging took away some of the pain inside his head but caused a firm sting to run across his scalp. "I…ah can't…ah can't do this." He muttered, the tremble in the top of his legs now affecting his knees. It only took a second, but he let himself slip down to the ground without a care for his well-being.

Arm's grabbed him from behind, encircling themselves around his chest. When he fell to the floor, Victor came with him holding him tight and shielding him from the harsh impact of the floor. Oh he was going to feel it in the morning where the floor crashed hard into his knee, but it really didn't matter right then. Holding Leeland with one firm arm, he brushed his fingers through his unruly hair and stared up at the stunned blue mutant.

The boy was still clutching to his head, resting it upon Victor's chest. There was only so much one person could take in one day alone.

"Leeland, where did you find these?" Beast asked, crouching down in front of the two teens but he only received a firm shake of the blonde's head.

"I…I gave them to him." Victor answered instead and amber eye's where turned on him. "Nicky found them outside Miss Frost's office."

"And you didn't think to bring them straight here?"

Victor frowned and pursed his lips. "No. When you find something that belongs to someone, you give it back to them." The boy continued, ignoring his teacher's slightly shocked expression. "He thinks you all have something to do with it, that you hid it from him."

"I can assure you I knew nothing about this." But of his fellow X-men and friends, he was not so sure.

"What are you going to do?" Victor asked as the Beast straightened himself up, keeping a firm grip on his file. "If it wasn't so urgent to find your father Leeland, then I'd call them both back. As it is…we need him."

"I don't." Leeland muttered, hastily whipping at his eyes, he was _not_ crying. "He lied to me, drugged me. What do yah need him for?"

"To find out why. Now come on, up you get."

Victor got to his feet, bringing Leeland with him but the boy was like a heavy led weight in his arms. He had half a mind to tell him to pull himself together, but the look on the taller boys face made him press his lips shut.

"What are yah gonna do?" Leeland asked in a quiet voice and Victor mused that he had never seen the Beast so stern looking before. Angry? Yes, anger was an easy emotion but to will it into something quieter and more deadly was a skill, or so the boy believed.

"I'm going to get this bottom of this, I promise. You'll have your answers by tonight."

The blonde bowed his head, he wanted to apologise and say thank you all at once to the blue furred man but nothing coherent would come to mind. So he stayed quiet and gave a tiny nod of his head. He was still annoyed, of course and a part of him still believed that Beast might know something. Then again, anybody could know anything it was just finding out which person had the information you wanted.

Before anything more could be said, there was a high keening from the entrance. All three of their heads turned and were met by the winged form of Megan, holding up a shredded torn knee with her hands pressed against the door frame. Blood had dripped and mingled into the knee and shin of her jeans and great big tears swam down her tinged pink cheeks.

"Megan…" The Beast sighed but smiled warmly at her as she hobbled into the room. Behind her, two more faces appeared, as if scared they where going to take the blame for their classmates injury.

Leeland was the first to catch both sets of eyes as Victor helped the bubblegum haired girl up onto one of the medical beds.

"I didn't do anything!" Nick protested his innocence but in doing so he revealed his partial guilt. This only made Leeland smirk and shake his head, all angry thoughts slowly melting away as something more trivial took its place.

The girl next to Nick frowned but she caught Leeland's eyes at a glance. At first, when he had met the twelve year old called Ernst, he was not quite sure what to make of her. A quiet girl, she was suffering from the disease Progeria. It was an extremely rare genetic condition wherein symptoms resembling aspects of aging were manifested at an early age. It was, in simple turns, a mutation of her genes turning weeks into months and months into years but she was also a full-fledged mutant. Ernst was a very rare little thing in deed.

"If you'd have caught the ball like you were supposed to." Nick fairly whined, hanging from the edge of the bed with a scowl, making the situation that little bit worse for himself.

"What happened?" Beast frowned as he fetched some antiseptic wipes to clear up the girl's knee. It wasn't too deep a cut, but he was certain it was the shock of blood that had caused all three of the children to panic.

"Nothing!" Protested Nick.

"We…we where playing on the b-basket ball caught a-and Nicky threw the ball too hard." Said Megan through little breathless sobs causing Beast to smile affectionately at her before assuring the girl that there was going to be a tiny sting on her knee.

Ernst still clutched to the doorframe, as if afraid to step into the rather clinical looking room.

"You wanna see?" Leeland asked her with a smile and the tiny girl nodded her head of thinning grey hair before holding up her arms too him. The girl weighed next to nothing and sat quite comfortably in the crook of Leeland's arm while they watched both Victor and the Doc clean up the young mutants knee.

"I don't really like hospitals." The girl whispered quietly and Leeland was not so sure he had heard her at first. But then he smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "Me neither." She wore a t-shirt with bunny rabbits on it and her trainers where the kind that lit up when you walked. It was cruel, that she may not even see her 13th birthday and the boy thought she had the youngest looking eye's he'd ever seen.

It was then that he realised that the world did not revolve around him. Of course he knew this already but there was more people in the school, certainly the world, that where dealing with things far beyond his own trivial turmoil's. He'd had a good life, hadn't he? His father was the best he knew even if he had lied to him. But then he supposed he knew nothing more than he did that morning. That perhaps he had been an experiment once….once.

"There, good as knew but I'm not so sure about your jeans Miss. Gywnn. I'm not sure even Miss. Pryde would be able to stitch them back together." Beast grinned down at the bubblegum haired girl who beamed back up at him before gently pressing her fingers to the small bandage now wrapped securely around he knee.

It was only then that Victor realised whom Leeland had cradled in his arms and on approaching them, he tickled the girl softly in the side of the stomach. "How'd you get up there, climb him?" He grinned, causing her to giggle. Her body may have been old and frail but her laughter certainly was not.

"Mr. Gleason, if I have to tell you about rough housing anymore, we're going to have to send you to _Dog Borstal_." Beast warned sternly with a wag of his finger, but it was clear he was simply joking around. The look of Nicholas face suggested he thought Beast was being rather serious and made a point to stand up straighter. "I won't do it again, I swear!"

"Well all right then, if you promise."

"I promise!"

"Good." Beast grinned as he straightened up. "Now let's help Megan off the bed."

"I can do it." Megan smiled and gave a small flutter of her brightly coloured wings, her feet never touched the ground. Leeland shook his head and tilted it to the side. "Yah know if yah don't move it, it's gonna go stiff." He warned. Looking up at the tall blonde, Megan made a point to bite her lip and frown. "But it stings." She said quietly. "Yeah, it'll sting for a bit but that just means it's gettin' better. If yah only use your wings then you'll rely on them too much. An' your legs…." He leaned down, his arms still wrapped around Ernst. "They'll turn to jelly an' fall off." He whispered with a grin in her pointed elf like ear.

When he straightened up, the boy didn't know whether to laugh at her or look sheepish for telling her something rather actually horrifying. Megan looked shocked before a determined streak ran across her features and with a small hiss of pain, she made her self stand on both legs. A little wobbly, but with Nicky's help, she was able to hobble over to the door.

"HEY! That's my fur!"

"S-sorry…"

With a little help from pulling the small wolf child's skin, of course.

"Thank you!" She called.

"Children." Beast gave a small shake of his head and began to clear away the small first aid box.

"You know." Started Victor, shoving his hands deep down into the pockets of his shorts. "You didn't talk too her in Welsh." He smiled up at Leeland.

"I didn't?" The boy asked and it was only then that he realised he still had Ernst in his arms. Setting her down gently, she beamed up at him and laced his fingers with her own before attempting to pull his towards the door.

"Wait a minute Ernie…" He turned towards the Beast who was busy washing his hands at one of the sinks. "Oh." Said the Blue furred man, peering over his shoulder, his eye's lingering upon the discarded file on one of the sides. "Don't worry about that."

"What are you going to do?" Victor asked, watching as the man pushed his rounded spectacles further up his nose. "I'm going to gather the remaining staff and see what their thoughts on the matter are. Then we're going to find out what Miss Frost has been hiding."

xxx

"What…" There was always the possibility that what Emma was hiding was perhaps a child, but even that seemed too big, even for her. Out of everything he thought possible, he simply knew that that couldn't be true but he didn't hear Emma deny the charges either.

"Emma, tell me he's making this up."

"Why would I make up something like that?" Jonathon questioned. "There's nothing to gain by it other than your own…well…you should see the look on your face Mr. Summers."

Emma sat silently, never looking once at either one of her comrades but neither did she let her eye's leave Williams. If she wanted to, she could wipe all their minds there and then but she supposed that would not be in her best interest. Besides, taking a memory meant making one to fill in the space and she simply didn't think she had the energy for that.

"Let me guess Tony, you knew?" Scott frowned beneath his visor and Tony lifted the head from his iron suit. "Hmm, well I was the one in charge of finding his father. But…you're not his real one are you?"

"No." Said Jonathon quietly. "Biologically speaking that is. But I raised him, he's my son and I want him back."

"No." Said Emma. "You relinquished any rights you did have to him when you put him in that hospital."

"I told you, it wasn't me! I don't know what happened to him after the college rang me. Telling me about some kind of gas fault and that he was in the hospital. By the time I got there…He'd gone and I thought…." The man trailed of, bowing his head slightly before turning his eyes back towards Emma, glaring at her.

"Oh don't look at me like that McCorby."

"Like what. You abandoned him Emma." He turned his attention back towards Scott. "Shall I tell you the story of a pretty little blonde girl begging me to find her baby? Well, it goes a little like this…"

xxx

"I knew we should have never trusted her." Kitty pursed his lips and shook her head of brunette hair. It was true, that she and Emma never really saw eye to eye but she was apart of the team now and that gave her a little leeway every now and again.

"Katya…" Peter sighed and patted her shoulder. "Always quick to judge." He shook his head slightly and peered up and around Cerebro, then back down at the Beast. Behind him stood the triplets, their identical heads in identical helmets. Was it such a good idea to let Emma's clones find her and all her secret little lies? Actually, it had been the triplets who suggested such a thing and the remaining X-men could do little more than accept their offer. Short of ringing Emma and demanding the truth, this was the best method they had.

"They have found his father…" The girls said in unison.

"Oh….it is story time." They added, causing the three adults to frown at them with bemused and puzzled looks. "You'll want to here this."

_1989_

_L.A California_

Downtown L.A was very much like any other down town Johnny McCorby ever had the fortune of visiting. It was usually the misfortune of others that he had to visit them but now he was seeing it through different eyes. This time, the place was his own and he supposed he was going to be rather happy at the little "shop" he had set up.

Barely twenty-five years old and he was already the most sort after mercenary in the world. Maybe a secluded warehouse or an underground cave would have better suited him better? The young man scoffed at himself, this was real life not a dammed comic book. He needed a room with cheap rent and no one asking questions. He also needed to persuade a certain someone to go home.

"I'm telling you Johnny boy, married life is…is…" The young man pottering around the office scratched the side of his head and attempted to brush a stray dreadlock from his eyes. It was a tradition that all Siers carried but it didn't half make the man's head itch.

Johnny peered across at his friend and frowned before a smirk crossed his features. Kwon was tall and pale, the slant of Asian eye's making him seem far more mysterious than the warlock really was.

"A pain?" He helped causing his friend to scoff and delve into his denim jacket pocket. "No, baby's are a pain…woman are…nope, the words are there but I'm afraid one of the fairer sex may have her ears pressed up against the wall. They bug places like this you know?"

"Who, woman or the general public?" Johnny snickered; moving across the office and stepping past a pile of books he was yet to place into the miss matched shelves. Oh he could have had a big luxurious apartment, but then who would hire a mercenary splashed across tacky tabloid magazines?

"Don't get cute with me tough guy, deep down you're just mush and gush like the rest of us. Look, doesn't this make you go weak at the knee's?" At this point, a picture of Kwon's crawling nine-month-old son was produced, jet black hair and deep blue eyes. He was also drooling and podgy and though Johnny held affection towards his God Son, he was certainly not just ready for his own little clone.

"No." The Irish man frowned. "No it does not. Look, you're plane is heading out in two hours, you need to be at the airport and I have an appointment." Johnny tried to shift his friend from one of the ledges he needed to retrieve his appointment book from, but Kwon only smirked and dug his heels into the floor. "Pff, the plane can wait. I might be a family man now, but the dangers still there man. Come on, let me tag on this one."

"No." It seemed to be his favourite word of the day. "You said it yourself Kwon, a family man. You want me to ring Josie one day, tell her that Brian's not got a Daddy coming home anymore. Nah, I don't think so. Nice of you to Visit, now move." His tone was deadpan, it always had been and he wondered for a while if it would be like that in twenty years time.

Kown flicked his hand behind his back and clicked his finger. The appointment book came to his hands and he grinned as he began to flick through it. "You know…you really shouldn't leave this hanging about."

"Kwon, give me that back or I-"

"Oooo Frost. Sounds Mysterious…" He teased in a singsong voice, causing Johnny to frown. He had half a mind to slap him up side the head, either that or produce his Firestar, all compact 9mm of it with it's 7 shot magazine. But he knew there was no use producing a gun against a warlock. Besides, annoying as he was, Kwon was his friend…his partner. Unfortunately, a partner with a family and something he couldn't really have hanging on top of his head.

"If you must know-" Johnny seized the appointment book. "The Frost's are a rather upstanding family from Boston. Their kids don't have to work for their scholarships. Emma is the 3rd child out of four, the second girl out of three…a dancer for the Hellfire Club, an underground elite society-"

"Ooo swanky and sexy-"

"And a mutant."

Kwon fell silent, stroking at his beard with his long spindly like fingers that reminded Johnny of bones.

"Is that such a good idea, boss?"

Johnny knew it was serious when Kwon ever called him "boss" but he simply could not let the smile falter on his face. "Why Mr. Sier, are we being a little prejudice, hmmm, _witch_."

"I'm not a girl." Kwon frowned before his expression became serious again. "Hmm, suppose you're right. No harm in meeting her, besides, an exotic dancer-she's probably sweet as-."

"Ok." Johnny had had enough. "You're leaving."

But as the two scrambled behind the door, one of them trying to pin the other's arms behind his back there came a delicate yet firm rap of knuckles against the frosted glass in the door. Johnny froze upon the spot; he had not expected her until two. What time was it, had he lost track or was she early?

"Looks like I'm staying." Kwon grinned and very nearly leaped for the door with his long legs. He got to the door before Johnny even had time to think about answering it.

It opened, revealing a woman no older than twenty, with eye's older than her body was letting on. A short crop of nearly white blonde hair fell at her shoulders and she moved past Kown as if he were mere furniture.

"Why hello-" The taller man started but the woman merely scoffed and held up one delicate white hand. "Oh please save it darling. You're married and I am certainly not interested in that."

She turned her pale blue eyes back towards the room and Johnny's waiting grey ones. "Mr. McCorby I presume."

"Yes, Miss…Ms. Frost?" He stepped forward, business face on and extended his hand. "Please, call me Emma. I don't have much time so I'll be quick. I need a favour from you and fast."

Johnny nodded and Kwon closed the door, looking ever so slightly downtrodden, yet intrigued.

"What is it I can do for you today Emma."

"My son." She said flatly. "I need my son."

And that, as they say, was the beginning of the end for Johnny McCorby and his neat little mercenary business.

**TBC~**


	11. Heart of Gold

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 21/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 11**: Heart of Gold

Jonathon never really had a lot of time to sum up his clients. He usually only ever met the odd one, most often over a brief phone conversation. Oh they al loved his services, but no one would ever admit to using them. It was very rare for someone to come direct to him and he had only ever had one previous woman client before. She was an elderly lady but she was certainly no pushover. Something to do with her grandson trying too "off her off" …He wasn't a problem for her anymore after using McCorby's services.

But the woman in front of him was barely that, she still carried the soft features of a child but there was certainly good bone structure, just waiting for its time.

"Please, take a seat." He offered her the seat in front of his desk and she gladly accepted, placing her cream coloured purse neatly in her lap.

"Forgive my abruptness if you will Ms. Frost, but you seem awful young to be needing my services and I'm a mercenary miss, not a detective. If you have problems locating your son then perhaps the police-"

"I hardly doubt the police will help me on the matter, neither would they believe what I'm about to tell you. Perhaps your partner better take a seat, unless the warlock is too proud to be seen near a mutant." Emma glanced over her shoulder at the dreadlocked man, a small smile on her face.

"Besides, as a married man, you should know better." She turned back towards McCorby who blinked before hiding his own smirk behind a small cough. It was hard even for Kwon's own wife to put the man in his place sometimes, but a woman they had only just met had done it within three seconds of meeting him. Perhaps she was no pushover after all.

Kwon perched behind Jonathon with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed defensively. But he did sit and listen, that was one good aspect about him.

"Mr. McCorby, …You see my problem is that last year I ran into some trouble. I spent a period of months homeless after an argument with my father. It left me with no home and very little reputation. I was approached by a woman who told me she could help me and try as I might I found no reason to disbelieve her. I'm a telepath, seeing though people is what I do best." Emma glanced at Kwon but when her eye's glanced back down her smile faltered.

"I was persuaded, drugged and taken to New Mexico. Placed in a chamber that suppressed my abilities I was unable to escape…You see where I'm heading with this?" She asked, lifting her eyes towards Jonathon who gave a small nod of his head. He had, of course, some information about the recent treatment of mutants. They where seen as second class citizens, no better than thugs or murderers, apparently.

"Experimented on, very nearly left for dead but one day they simply let me go. I was dropped out in the Arizona desert where my most recent employee found me. Thanks to Mr. Shaw I was able to educate myself and find a securer job-no I am not a whore Mr. Sier- Anymore thinking like that and I'll reduce you to a vegetable. What's your preference, cucumber or beetroot?" She paused briefly to breath and unclipped her purse.

"So where does the son come in?" Jonathon frowned and reminded himself to hit Kwon the next opportunity he gained.

"That's the part the police wouldn't believe, and neither did I when I was first informed. I came across some information that was given to me anonymously that as well experimenting on my mind and my powers, they also stole parts of me. My eggs."

She was to the point, that much could be said about Ms. Frost and Jonathon found himself leaning back in his own seat, one hand resting on the dark wooden desk in front of him. Dubious as he was, he wanted to know more and whether or not the job was worth taking on.

"You don't believe me." It was not a question, but a direct remark and Jonathon lightly shrugged his shoulders. "We don't have much to go on apart from you word."

"My word is as good as." From her purse she produced a small brown file and passed it across the desk. "This was handed to me a few weeks ago, I believe it's what became of my…" She frowned, suddenly not willing to say the words "eggs" out loud. For they were no longer that, they were much more.

Taking the file, Jonathon spread the contents out before him and raised his hand towards his chin in deep thought. There was a small glossy photograph of an infant hooked up to a multitude of wires, closed off in isolation. Tiny little thing with hair like sun spun silk, staring at the camera with wide pale eyes. Jonathon supposed he'd just found his soft spot.

"There's no mention of a father, but then again I don't have much relocation of their being any male inmates that weren't younger than two. He was born, apparently, through a surrogate mother who I can't track down either."

"Why is he so important too you, if you didn't carry him and you never knew about him until a month ago?" Kwon asked, peering over his friends shoulder to the mass of official documents stating this that and the other.

Emma tilted her head to the side and kept her gaze longer on the Warlock than she intended too. "If I had known about him Mr. Sier-"

"But you didn't and you don't seem to overly upset about his current condition."

"I prefer to keep my emotions in check. Nothing is ever achieved by a blubbering mess. Besides, Mr. Sier…The Black Womb facility specialises in infants. I was a passing experiment. There are not a lot of experiments that…place…could do on the living. Whether I carried him or not, he's still mine…and he deserves more that to be smothered with a doctors hand for fear of toxins from a lethal injection. If there is the possibility of them keeping him alive, I can't see much good coming from it. I'm a telepath and though it's not certain, he could be too." She paused, brushing a stray hair from her face; her eye's still hollow, still uninviting. "There is a machine…out there somewhere…hook a telepath up to it and they can lock onto any individual in the world, they think too hard about it and they can kill them. What group of people would like to finish off this week Mr. President? The mutants, the Arabs, the genetically enhanced, the warlocks? It's not just his safety I'm concerned about…"

The mercenary picked up the photo of the sickly looking child and stared at it for a good long while before he gave a small nod of his head. "I'll need a list Ms. Frosts and the whereabouts-"

"You can't be serious." Kwon muttered with a shake of his head.

"And a meeting point. I give you the baby, you give me my payment. Understood?" He'd never had to deliver anything alive before; it was certainly going to be interesting.

Emma smiled and gave a nod of her head before rising to her feet. "I'll call you later tonight."

When she left, the room fell silent as the sandy haired man went about collecting up the file on his desk, placing it in his top priority's tray. Then he set to work collecting up his books. All the while Kwon had not moved from his perch.

"What are you brooding about now?"

"She's lying." Said the warlock flatly.

"Lying, now really Kwon. The evidence is right there…I bet the human rights group would have field day if they found out-"

"But she's not human, so they wouldn't. I didn't mean lying about the kid." He pushed himself from the perch and walked around the desk, watching as Jonathon picked up several small piles of books. "Then, pray tell, what is she lying about?"

"She won't come for him."

Jonathon turned and frowned at his friend, even a smile had built up in the corner of his mouth. But then it slipped from his face for his friend had never looked so serious before. "You pick up that baby, boss, she isn't going to come for him. She's not the mothering type-"

"And you're basing that on what? You fatherly instincts?"

"No, she's got too good a life. You said the Hellfire club, right. That's Sebastian Shaw's territory and they count among its members the most famous, wealthy and influential members of society. A baby isn't fitting into that equation." He shrugged his shoulders, as if that was the end of discussion. It caused Jonathon to turn and fold his arms across his chest with a small frown.

"So what do you suppose I do, just forget she ever came?"

"Exactly…"

"And if it was Brian."

Kwon scowled. "That's not fair."

"No, and neither is what they did to her, or what they're doing to that baby. Look, what can she gain from this being a set-up. I go in, do my job and retrieve what I'm supposed to. If she doesn't turn up, then I'll find her and demand my payment the old fashion way."

"And the baby?"

"There are plenty of couples out there who badly want one, it's no big deal."

"You're being awfully calm about all this."

Jonathon turned back to his books. "Yes." He said with a small frown. "Yes I am."

It was eleven pm by the time Jonathon received the call he had been waiting for all night. What slightly unnerved the young man was how calm he seemed about the whole ordeal. Kwon could be right, it could be a set up but he still clung to his theory that Frost would have nothing to gain out of it. Unless of course, he had killed someone who had been dear to her? No, no he was rather good at keeping up with that kind of business, that's what he had Kwon for.

Certainly more powerful than any mutant. As far as the Warlock saw it, mutants merely had one spell. (Or a multitude of the same spell but produced in exactly the same way.) He on the other hand, well. They didn't burn witches for nothing…

"Is that everything?" Jonathon finished, jotting down the final name before peering at his list of instructions. It was rather straightforward really. Travel to New Mexico, infiltrate the building (an abandoned nuclear plant) and kill anyone who got in his way. Once he retrieved the child he was too meet with Ms. Frost some two thousand miles away in Massachusetts. Not that he wanted to risk travelling so far with an infant.

"The payment will be made once I have my son…thank you." And Ms. Frost sounded ever so sincere, if not a little afraid. Jonathon shifted in his seat slightly.

"What's his name Emma?"

"Pardon." Perhaps it caught her off guard, but he knew confusion when he heard it.

"The child…What have you named him?"

"I-…Not that I think it matters but…Francis, I'm going to call him Francis."

"Then you'll have Francis in three day's time, two if I can get away tonight. You won't be able to reach this number after this call, but I'm rather sure you have your own means…"

"Yes dear, rather so. Have a pleasant evening Mr. McCorby."

"And same to you Ms. Frost."

Francis. Francis Frost. Jonathon couldn't help smirking.

Later that night and early into the morning, he met up with Kwon who was looking rather pleased with himself. The plane to New Mexico would take them roughly an hour and then it was a short drive out towards their destination.

"Alamogordo, government research facility or abandoned nuclear plant. Not exactly a safe place for kids, hmm Johnny boy." The drive was taking them far longer than they had both first anticipated. It was a rented car, nothing that would give them away. Just two young guys, fresh out of college perhaps, trekking their way through the desert back home? They always were good with cover up stories, and if that didn't work then Kwon knew a thing or two about replacing a memory. He wasn't sure if that man in Nebraska ever did find out that there was no chicken farm that he was supposedly tending too. Though it had been amusing for three days watching him hand out invisible feed to non-existent hungry birds.

"Not a safe place for anybody." Jonathon reminded him and Kwon gave a loose shrug of his shoulders, his hand gliding through the warm breeze of the open car window. With him, the mercenary carried a Browning Hi-Power, a 9mm that weighed two pounds when fully loaded (13 rounds) with silver-plated bullets (He never knew what he was up against) and the Firestar. There was also a mini Uzi and a sawed off shotgun. But that was just his outfit. There where also several grenades and three deadly toxins, and Kwon.

Kwon of course had himself, but a warlock could not protect himself through spells alone. That was why he carried two 9mm underneath his denim jacket in a twin shoulder holster. They served their purpose but nothing felt more satisfying than his own magically induced words.

"I still don't trust her." Kwon added and Jonathon ignored him, keeping his eyes firmly on the road ahead. Not that he needed to, it was nothing but desert and a clear path for miles.

Rolling his eyes, Kwon spotted the building faintly in the distance and spread his hands across the interior of the car. Muttering under his breath, a soft blue light escaped his fingertips and engulfed the car. Too the two inside the vehicle, nothing changed, but to those outside it would appear that a perfectly normal car had simply vanished. As if it had fluttered away in the soft desert breeze…

It was work mode now, and Kwon's smart mouth remarks knew to stay quiet. They pulled the car up not too far from the building, gated with barbed and razor wire, it seemed impenetrable. Great water-cooling turrets littered the desert ground and other government type buildings looked about ready to fall down.

For a second, Jonathon thought about getting back into the car and simply driving away. But what if there really was a little boy…that would undoubtedly stay with him forever.

"It looks empty." Kwon commented, taking a hold of Jonathon's shoulders, pulling him close into his chest. One little incantation whispered in his ear and the pair of them found themselves safely on the other side of the gate.

"The complex is like a human body…it only get's interesting when you open it up." He grinned, the two of them invisible to anybody but themselves. That was one of the reasons he was glad he had someone like Kwon but most days it made him feel like cheating and now it was more risky. There was two, if not one child to think about. If Kwon was injured or killed out on a mission, then he would never be able to look at Brian again. If he put his father in danger, he'd be just as responsible as whoever pulled the trigger or whatever nasty thing they did. But whom was he too talk about "nasty" when he killed for a living?

"Frost said the boy would be in the womb…the Black Womb."

"How foreboding and appropriate." Kwon frowned.

There seemed to be no one up top but making their way down into the depths of the complex was not going to be a problem. As well as enabling invisibility, Kwon was rather adept at phasing through solid objects. He'd learnt a spell when he heard about a girl on the news who "could walk through walls."

Taking a firm hold of his friend's arm, they phased through the dusty ground and down into belly of the beast. "Oh my." When they hit the metallic ground, their eye's took several moments to adjust to dark light that hardly illuminated the place. The walls were coated in a dull green metal and various monitors and cables ran across the walls.

"Come on." Taking a firm hold of his Firestar, the pair made their way down the corridor, their ears on alert for any sounds of passing scientists or whatever they hid in secret government buildings. They came across a small twist of narrow hallways and viewing rooms. Kwon took one step forward before pausing, his eye's firmly stuck on a scene in one of the rooms.

"What…what do we do if he's dead?" He asked, his voice a small tremble and Jonathon frowned, stepping up too see what Kwon was jabbering on about. It was then that his eye's found the scene. There, laid out in a cot, was a tiny little baby, no older than a few weeks.

That was always the fear of a parent, that if you took your eye's off your new born then it would succumb to something nasty and terrible, like cot death. Never do you imagine that someone could simply leave a child, in hopes that it would die.

The infants' body was slowly turning blue and blood had already started to seep in at its ankles. It was dead.

"Keep walking, we've only come for one." He wanted to tell Kwon to leave, that he could find the child by himself and that Josie would be getting worried about him. But nothing of the sort left his mouth and they continued down the corridor.

Many of the rooms where empty, one or two of them occupied by various Doctors and rather official looking men in sharp suits. They carried the look that all hospital management carried; disgust in the sight of anything remotely medical. There was good business in sick people, didn't mean they had to mingle with it.

Turning another corner, they came to one single door at the end of the long corridor. It was guarded by two hard faced men, no younger or older than the two invisible in front of them. One of them was covered in acne and looked about twelve, holding his gun too stiffly in his arms.

Without a word between them, silencers where fitted to the pair of assassins guns that were then aimed at the two men. Without so much as a blink, the triggers where pulled at the same time and so the men fell dead as one. The youngest looking slumped to the side, while the other fell forwards. Dead before they hit the ground.

Sometimes Jonathon thought his job was too kind.

"How much so you bet he's in there boss? Their best kept and guarded secret?" Kwon tilted his head to the side, holding his gun to the side and outwards for safety measures. Any man who stuck their weapon into their pants were simply asking for a bullet in the crotch. Only morons in the movies did that.

Jonathon walked forwards, without a glance at the dead at his feet and peered at the electronic combination lock. "Your territory. If I do anything with that, it goes straight to the main admin room. They'll want to known who's going in and how long they'll be." He stepped back and let his partner though who placed his hand on the keypad.

"And now we're Doctor Mueller and we'll be in there for less than five minutes." He grinned over his shoulder as the door slid open and he soon regretted such a decision.

xxx

Meanwhile, in New York City, some two thousand miles away and in a completely different world, the Hellfire Club's latest party was in its fullest swing. Stood at the top of the magnificent staircase, with its red satin back curtain, was the drop of cream in the sea. Looking back, it was nothing better than an upper class brothel. Of course, the club was nothing like that but on first glance it certainly appeared that way.

Barely twenty years old, she stood as the White Queen in her outfit of nothing more that a white fur cape and the barest of undergarments, but it served her purpose.

"Sebastian, Darling, what's wrong?" The Black King was unhappy and she certainly didn't need to be a telepath to work that out. Even a normal person would have tasted it in the air.

"I'm impatient, my dear Emma. I executed a flawless coup to assume leadership of the Hellfire club's inner circle." Sebastian Shaw frowned, something he did on a rather regular basis. With his hair pulled back into a neat fitting ponytail and his high-necked cravat, he would have looked more fitting in a 19th century period drama. "And yet…" He continued, stiff arms clasped behind his back. "I am without my White King."

"Shaw, you're more impatient that a child on Christmas morning." Emma found herself wanting to tut and shake her white-gloved finger at the man. Instead she turned with a small flick of her hair and raised her blue eye's up towards Sebastian.

"Made even moreso, my dear, by not seeing the one thing I most truly wanted." Sebastian gritted his teeth and Emma tilted her head to one side.

"Maybe you weren't a good enough boy this year, hmmm? Tell your Auntie Emma what your heart most desires?"

"A man dammit! A king!"

And Emma found herself sighing. "A good man is hard to find."

Surveying the gathering at the foot of the stairs, her eye's glanced across the room full of dilettantes playing dress up and she wanted to scowl at every single one of them. If only they knew? But what was troubling Emma the most, was not keeping face but tearing away from it. Soon there would be a small squirming thing in her arms demanding love and a whole abundance of things that she could certainly afford. But upon reading that Warlocks mind, she found herself agreeing with him. Why would she want to give up what she had?

There was also the small problem of who she was and what implications a child would bring. Danger, that was what. Unnecessary danger to both her and the infant. Now she had to think of what to do next? Once she had him of course.

"Seriously, quit your job and come work for me."

Descending the staircase and watching the crowd part before them, she heard the distinct voice of one smarmy little man she had no intention of speaking too. "I'll pay you double but our dress code is identical." The sharp suited man with his neatly combed hair and striking moustache was addressing one of their waiter girls. She wore a rather revealing little French maids outfit, and she seemed quite pleased and smug of the attention.

_Here. Let me introduce you to some of the spoiled brats that have floated in here on the tide of entitlement._ Sebastian guided Emma over towards the Sharp suited sleaze that was now trying to persuade the French maid to fax him her resume.

"Stark." Sebastian called and the man turned with a white teethed grin, sticking his unoccupied hand out towards the man in charge. His other had been quite rightly occupied with a drink.

"Shaw." They shook rather enthusiastically, at least on Starks part. "I have to say, of all the things my old man left me, membership to your little clubhouse has definitely got to be one of the best…"

"One of?" Smirked Shaw, taking a firm hold of Emma's arm to show off her full costumed entire and it certainly gained Starks approval. "My, how disappointing. Stick around let's see if we can't spice things up."

"Now, now. It's plenty spicy. Don't go mixing things up on…on my account." His grin only widened the more Emma scowled and in the end he leaned towards her, causing her to tut in disapproval. "Emma Frost." She stated. "The White Queen."

"I'm completely in love darling. Tell me, do you drink champagne?"

"I don't drink _that_ champagne." Came her hard faced reply and she watched Stark, who whole hardheartedly agreed, pour the liquid over his shoulder without the bat of an eyelid.

"Pssht, this? I would be caught dead drinking-"

"HEY!" Shouted a disgruntled body behind them and Stark turned with a slightly blank expression, glancing at the man who was wiping Champagne from his dry clean only suit. "Oh hey, sorry-"

"Sorry? You're SORRY?" The man began to shout, grabbing the attention of the near by partygoers. "You drunken little dandy! You would dare-"

"Osborn." Shaw stepped between the two, his hands placed between both sides of the men. "You're embarrassing yourself." Sebastian stated quite flatly much to the anger and annoyance of Norman Osborn who wiped Sebastian's hand from his chest and pointed a finger in his direction. "I'm embarrassing? I'm! You're the one wearing your grandmother's lace doily and powered wig, you spoiled-"

"Aheh." Sebastian frowned, never pleased when a finger was jabbed in his direction and certainly not when it was poked so harshly into his chest.

"It's not a wig." He stated very calmly. "And you've maybe had one too many, Mr. Osborn. While your membership here is life long, I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave this particular evening where it stands." In retaliation, still as calm as ever, he took a hold of Osborn's fingers and pulled it the wrong way.

"AHH!" Osborn pulled his hand back, cradling it in his arm like a broken toy. Scowling, he turned from them all.

"Shaw. Stark. You have no idea what Hell truly is. One day I'll show you." He fairly hissed before storming towards the door more like a sullen toddler than a distinguished super villain.

"Holy cow." Stark grinned, a new glass of crystal clear alcohol in his hand. "That guy's a real nut job, eh, Shaw? Shaw?"

Sebastian had turned from Stark, clearly appalled at his behaviour as well_._

_Emma, the playboy bores me. Occupy him elsewhere._

_I thought you'd never ask._

Emma turned with her hands resting on her hips and without a glance at Stark she began to think. Stark. _I think she likes you, don't you, my dear?_ Her eye's wandered towards the little French maid who was still making her rounds with a tray of bubbly. _Seek her out. Find her._

"I…I gotta go Shaw." Stark started, a half glazed look across his eye's as he passed his drink along to a waiting girl.

"Of course." Shaw watched as he left, making his way silently through the crowd of people.

_Tony Stark. A leader of men? I think not._

_Still, he's rich._ Emma suggested, draping her arms around Shaw's shoulder, hands clasped loosely in front of his neck.

_I'm rich Emma. It's not money that the Hellfire club lacks, nor the morons that spend it. No what we're missing is a sense of something regal, a little touch of royalty._

Their eye's moved across the room and found just the man they had been seeking. Certainly dressed in more attire than he was used to, their eye's locked across the gathering of people. All of them stopped to stare at Namor, the prince of Atlantis and the very first mutant. Just being in the room sickened him.

_Look at him._ Started Shaw. _Seething._

_Don't worry._ Emma smirked, crossing her arms over her ample bosom. _I am._

"Pig." Shaw muttered. "PRINCE NAMOR." And Sebastian grinned for the first time that night; his hands spread out wide to great the royalty that had graced his home.

"Shaw." Namor moved through the crowd as if they were mere fish in his way. Each one of them dashing and stepping to the side as too be out of his way. Even if there were no such things as mutants, then the man would certainly never pass for human. With his pointed ears and sharp strong bones, he looked more like an eleven prince straight from the fairy books. But Prince Namor was all that and more.

"We, ah, appreciate you accepting the invitation of the Hellfire club's inner circle to hear out off-"

"If one of your witches pokes inside my head, I'll consider it an act of war against Atlantis and kill you all." His dark eye's scanned across to Emma, who still stood unimpressed with her arms tucked under her chest. Sebastian retrieved his hand when he realised it was not going to be shaken. "My mind is sovereign space. Understood?"

"Your thoughts shall remain your own sir. And welcome. As you can see the club is nothing if-"

"Yes, yes, Wonderful." His hand moved slowly toward the back of Emma's head, caressing her behind the ear and letting her pale strands of hair run through his fingers like water. "This one. I like this one. We don't have blondes where I come from."

"Ah-Ah-Ah." Emma gently swatted the hand away with a half smile caressing her lips. "You're not _my_ prince. By the way, do you always smell like that?" She questioned and in return she gained his smile back, and it furrowed his eyebrows even more. "Yes. Do you?"

"I'll come to you little meeting, Shaw-I'm always amused when you house apes play dress up. But this one better be there…or else I'll get bored."

xxx

"Urm…" Started Kwon when the doors slid backwards to reveal the room at large. Several pairs of eyes turn towards them, and though they could not see them, they saw the bodies of the two guards on the ground.

All at once, the alarm was signaled and for a second or two, the pair of them simply stood there. It only took Jonathon a second to act, unloaded his 9mm and began to fire. If they were not on Ms. Frost's list, then they where simply cannon fodder. If they got out alive, well good for them. If they were on the list, well Jonathon never had to check twice.

The invisible force swept through the pristine white room as people began to run for the doors. Kwon was quick to catch on and began find his own targets, whether they where list material or not.

"4.2 is too be moved to a secure unit, move!" A voice sounded behind the grey eyed mercenary and he held his breath. The man sauntered past him, no, a boy. He must have been a boy, couldn't have been no older than fifteen but perhaps it was just the baby face. There was simply something about him that unnerved Jonathon, from the cold hazel of his eyes to the pale sandy coloured hair, but he wasn't on the list. A young solider in charge, something he rather liked to see but no, this one just didn't feel right.

A shot rang out behind them, not one of their own and he side stepped to the side and watched with a bemused smile as friendly fire hit the piping behind…Oh…it was a cot of some kind.

"I don't have time for you to play kill the escapees." He called to Kwon who tutted somewhere in the distance and closed his eye's. Spreading his hands out he began to whisper and something cold shimmered across the room holding everyone in place that he didn't want to move. That was everyone bar him, Jonathan and…

There was a small gurgle coming from the cot and when the two killers stepped forward the pale-eyed infant peered up at them.

It was then that Jonathon got his real first look at the baby soon to be named Francis Frost. Strange, it sounded like a lame superhero's name. One that donned a cape.

He was covered in a multitude of wires; each one held in place with what he could only guess was a needle and small piece of medical tape.

"The hell is he covered in?" Kwon frowned and holstered his gun before placing his hands gently inside the cot.

It could have been some kind of life support but Jonathon never got to ask. A small muttering under his breath and the wiring came away, leaving tiny bruises all across the child's pale skin.

Dressed in nothing more than a cotton white nappy, Kwon held the tiny infant on his hip and half covered him with his jacket. Tiny pale wisps of baby white hair poked out and the boy looked at the two of them with his milk like eyes before starting to drool on his hand.

"Come on, we need to get out of here." They moved through the room, like ghosts in a child's story. It was only when they reached the door did he turn back to the boy solider and held his frozen gaze for longer than he meant too. Had he been perhaps an experiment himself, who knew. Who would ever know?

xxx

"All around the world, for more than two hundred years, the Hellfire club has sought out men like you, Prince Namor." They sat around a grand table in the under belly of the Hellfire club building. Away from that of prying eye's and binge drinking billionaires up to no good without their wives permission.

"You see, the Hellfire club brokers in many things, as you have may surmised; pleasure, sex, conspiracy, coercion…and most all, power. Recently I have personally usurped the command structure of the inner circle and I am remaking it in my own image-in our own image-in your own image, Namor…"

Sebastian grinned. "Mutants. All of us are mutants. And you Prince-you are our first!"

Namor was quiet, his arms folded across his chest as he listened to Shaw's one-sided banter.

"Will you, Prince Namor, ruler of Atlantis and mutant amongst mutant be our King? The power on the land that the Hellfire club would allow you would be matched only by the prestige your presence would grant us.

It was then that Namor stood, his hands clasped to the table in front of him. "You look…at this…and think Mutant? I am lord and master of over seventy percent of the Earth's surface, you little fat fop. You might as well have asked me to join in the secret eyebrow society, for I have those as well. Or perhaps a faction of footed, a conspiracy of the be-thumbed." With a scowl and shake of his head, he began to make his way towards the staircase.

"If you dare waste my time again I will drown this building and everyone in it." Turning with a quick glance at Emma he nodded his head. "Ms. Frost." And with that, he left.

There was silence and only Shaw's heavy breathing could be heard. Emma was silent, her hands neatly resting on the tabletop but it did not take her long to realise what Shaw would do and she gently pushed herself back from the table.

Just as she thought, Shaw lunged for the table. "THAT-" One thump to the table. "ARROGANT-" A second and the wood began to split. "MONGREALL!" He roared, destroying the table as if it's existence never mattered in the first place.

"No one speaks to Sebastian Shaw like that! No one humiliates the Black King!"

"Emma! We need him. We need him as part of the inner circle. Bend his will towards our cause, no matter what the cost." He very nearly spat at her, pointing a shaken finger to make his point more solidified.

"No matter the cost you say? Be careful for what you wish for, Darling." Emma smirked. "I just might get it."

Shaw marched over to her and grabbed her chin in his hands, pulling her face upwards so their eye's met. "There is nothing in this life that you have that I have not allowed. There is a power differential here, girl, and do not allow yourself to mistake that for any kind of emotion at all." he pushed her away and watched as she staggered before straightening herself up. "This is about power and nothing more!"

xxx

"So." Kwon was the first to break the ice. "Think she'll show?" They had been all but silent on the drive back from the facility. Apart from the baby boy's confused little gurgles and occasional whimper, and Kwon's muttering about "never getting blood out of denim."

They were holding out in a dusty cheap motel, somewhere of the beaten track. It had pink stained walls, and ceilings yellowed from years of tobacco smoke. The baby was pilled in a safe cocoon of clean sheets and was fast asleep, worn out from nothing more pure confusion.

"At this point…I don't really care." He sat with his head in his hands, pushed back into a sagging armchair that had seen more burn holes than the carpet.

Frowning, Kwon reared back from the window to peer at his friend. "Are you…you all right?" He asked but his friend didn't reply, only shifted his gaze to the small bundle on the bed. "I'm tired, just tired."

xxx

The waves were calm, the sun warm even though it was hanging low in the sky. As a keen yachtswoman, it didn't take Emma Frost long to navigate her way around the South China Sea. She had only one day and one night to make this work; otherwise she was little more than screwed.

Shaw had done a lot for her since her little mishap with the Black Womb people but soon she would have what were rightfully her's and Shaw…well most of the time she didn't have a kind word for him.

_Namor? Prince Namor? Are you out there? It's Emma Frost? _She got to her feet, dressed in nothing more than her bathing costume.

_I've been lying out on my yacht for a few hours and I've gotten myself bored. So I've decided to kill myself._ The sea was so calm, so peaceful as she cast her mind far. _I've got a, oomph, a fifty pound weight clamed around my ankle. I'm going to throw it….throw it in._ And sure enough, there was a large metallic weight clasped around her foot.

_And let's see what happens when I can't breath anymore._ She pushed the ball into the water and fell in right along with it. It took her a second to adjust her thoughts, to let the sudden sharpness of water collect around her as the weight pulled her quickly down.

_I really thought you liked me, too. Oh well. Goodbye._

The sun was slowly pulling away from her grasp and she felt her lungs sting with the sudden lack of oxygen. It was rather like falling asleep, warm and confused, never quite realising when you've drifted off.

It was then that she realised it was probably the worse way to gain someone's attention.

A blur of colour shot past her in the dark of the water. Taking hold, the body wrapped its arms around her and pulled the woman close, pressing their lips together.

_Finally._

xxx

They drove the two thousand miles across the United States of America; the infants pale eye's taking in every site that it possibly could. All in all, he was a very normal little baby, a little quiet for Kwon's liking but he'd taken to the little tot instantly.

"Oh you're not as cute as Brian is, but you are adorable." He said with a grin, holding the now clothed child on his lap, feeding him soft peaces of banana and peach. The little one would raise it happily to his mouth and began munching away, sucking his bottom lip as he did so.

"If he was as cute as Brain, I'd be having words with Josie." Jonathon smirked and kwon grinned before his face fell. "Oi." He scowled but the grey-eyed man only grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmm. You're screwed if this hair doesn't darken kiddo. Say, wanna play guess the father test?"

"No."

"Aww, come on."

"There are two hundred and fifty million people in the united states alone. About half of them are woman, and a third of the males are under the age of sixteen. Take out everyone of ethnic origin and you're still left with a bucket full. Have fun guessing."

Kwon frowned and looked down at the baby in his lap who peered up at the deadlocked Asian and smiled at him with a small gurgle. "Sorry Frosties. Looks like you don't get to know."

They reached Massachusetts just before nightfall and the two of them waited in the spot Frost had told them too. The baby was clutched to Jonathon's jumper, pressing his tired little head deep into his chest with a yawn. They waited, and they waited but they had both known all along that she simply wouldn't show. With out a word to each other, they turned and headed back to the car.

Neither one of them knew of Emma's rather difficult position she was in right at that point. Some mere miles under the sea surrounded in deep silk with the Prince of a lost world keeping dutiful watch.

**TBC~**


	12. Heart of Gold: Part 2

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 22/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 12:** Heart of Gold: Part 2

A week had passed and there had been still no sign of Ms. Frost. Both Jonathon and Kwon had been out on alternating day's trying to track her down but it was to no avail. The warlock had only been trying to find her because he knew he wouldn't, he was also getting sick of Jonathon's nagging. It was starting to feel like he was married to not once but twice. It also didn't matter how many locating spells he did, it kept saying she was under the Pacific Ocean. Of course, Kwon knew that was highly inaccurate and blamed his restlessness on not being able to concentrate.

They were staying in yet another hotel and Jonathon had just come off the phone with a rather particular regular client of his. Without explaining the situation, the mercenary had to turn down a rather large sum of money of which he was surely going to make Ms. Frost re-in-burst plus her own outstanding fee. But all in the all, he did not so much mind the quiet life. It had only just started to dawn on him how much simpler it was to not be at someone's beck and call. Oh of course he was his own boss, but it irritated him when someone thought that perhaps they owned him because they were helping to pay his rent with a bullet in someone's head.

The baby was sat in a small bundle of blankets, his hands wrapped around a soft lamb rattle, which he was not so much as rattling, as simply holding. Jonathon would often sit and watch him for an hour so, in which he would never make a peep and only look up once in a while with a gummy baby grin before looking back down. He wouldn't hold a bottle like Brian had done at six months old and it was rare whenever he did want to eat. He had a feeling that no one had so much as handled him before, let alone fed him by hand. But he loved the attention that much was certain.

Crossing the room, he knelt in front of the infant, watching as his baby fine hair danced in the non-existent breeze. The baby looked upwards and grinned at Jonathon, as if waiting for him to do something exciting. It made the place brighten and everything seem so simple when he looked at the baby. The way he would gurgle and fill the room with noise when ever his eyes met Jonathon's. The man had a peculiar feeling that the baby was getting rather attached to him.

Or perhaps it was the other way around.

"If we don't find her, you're going to make a lonely couple very happy." He said quietly, resting his chin upon his arms. But even in thinking that, he wondered if he would be happy enough to simply hand him over to a childless couple. There was no doubt he would complete someone's life…

The room was stuffy, cramped and it was starting to smell of the two men and an underline of sour milk. With a shake of his head and a small sigh, he scooped the baby up into his arms and smiled slightly when he curled into the crook of his arm. "Come on, a walk sounds really good right about now." Several things sounded very good at that moment in time, including the largest bottle of bourbon he could lay his hands on. But the gut rot would have to wait like so many other little things one had to put aside for the care of an infant.

It was the middle of June and it was warm enough that some people wore jackets and others did not. A soft cool breeze washed over them and the baby scrunched his eyes up against the harsh light.

"Hey!" he heard a voice call behind them and turned to see Kwon coming towards him with a small frown on his face. "What are you doing?" He asked gesturing with a flick of a finger at the baby in his arms.

"Walking." Came the Irish man's sparse reply and his frowning friend rolled his eye's. "I can see that funny man. I mean why aren't you in the hotel? It's dangerous for him to be out like this."

Jonathon thought about that for a moment and looked down at the tiny infant who seemed more interested in the lady who had walked past with a small yapping dog.

"Is it?" He asked and began again on his walk, trainers clicking on the ground below. "Didn't it seem a little…"

"A little…what?" Kwon snaked his way around his friend, putting himself on the other side of the baby. Old habits died hard but the child was still part and parcel of the deal. You had to protect the goods, no matter what they were.

"Well..." The man frowned and gestured to the little one in his arms. Sometimes he still felt like the stumbling teenager with his hands grasped too hard around his first gun. Twenty-five, they were both still boy's married or not.

"Easy?" Kwon finished quietly, pushing his hands behind his head as they walked together down the small street crammed with little boutiques and café's. He'd been thinking a lot about their little rescue mission himself. What the warlock had expected was gun's blazing and better security for a facility dealing with human testing. Even animal testing centre's had tighter security than that and no one was liberating the mice.

"You know." Started Kwon. "This has been too easy. I keep expecting some black suited guy to walk around the corner, gun's in our faces demanding we give him back." Smiling, Jonathon shook his head and ran his free hand through the boy's almost white hair, trying to flatten it down. "It's not that. But we've had retrieve job's before and they where dam hard."

"Nothing's too hard for us boss."

"That's what I mean. Nothing's too hard for us, we're almost the best-"

"Almost?"

"Yeah, Wilson covers most of this side of the states. Maybe I should go back to Dublin?"

"And be arrested for shoe bombing, nah. If you're going to go anyway, come back to England. The North misses its sullen drunk Irishman." Kwon grinned and it grew more and more with Jonathon's scowl. But his face softened and he shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah…"

"Besides. Wilson's as batty as a fruit loop, you don't really want to get caught up with him, do you?"

"He's all right. A little gone in the head maybe, but he does a dam good job…Even if he does look about twelve." They both smirked at each other but then something caught their attention. They came towards a crossing, waited like everyone else for the light's to turn to red and for their own to flick to green. However, a car came to slow down but suddenly stalled and tried to get going again when the light's suddenly changed. Then they changed back and the car stalled again when it's owner tried to push up to second gear. The lights did this several times and cars began to honk and screech, people were shouting out of their windows for the ones in front to get a move on. But no one wanted to run a red light, broken or not.

Pedestrians didn't dare cross, just in case someone became a little too impatient.

"Knock it off." Jonathon hissed at his taller friend who only shrugged his shoulders and stared at the lights. "It ain't me boss." They looked across the road but saw nothing and the lights were still dancing merrily away to themselves.

The baby in Jonathon's arms began to giggle, clutching his little drool-covered hands to the young man's jumper. Both men looked down as the baby kept his milky eye's on the signal box up ahead. They looked at each other and slowly began to retreat from the gathering crowd and honking horns.

As they made their way quickly, but calmly, down the street several other peculiar things happened around them. An electronic parking meter spat the money back out at the customer and the overhead power cables started to spark with a pale green light. Lights in shops flickered on and off and people started to gather on the streets, wondering what on Earth was causing their sudden outage and power surge.

"Just keep walking." Kwon muttered and Jonathon mused that he could not have been less conspicuous if he had worn a hat pointing at the infant. The baby giggled madly as they hurried towards their hotel room. The lobby lights had began to flicker as soon as the entered the building and they had to move quickly towards the stairs, stating it was scaring the baby who had never looked more delighted.

Once safely locked in the room, with the baby on the bed in front of them, the two men began to pace in front of it. The stereo and TV flickered on at the same time and he was having an awful lot of fun with the lights. It was starting too look more like a techno disco and an epileptic's nightmare rolled into one.

"What do we do?" Jonathon suddenly asked, shielding his eyes from the harshness of the lights while trying to keep the infant on the bed. It seemed that everything needed to be grabbed at and suddenly he became rather frustrated. The infant thrust out his arm and threw his head back.

Kwon scrunched his eyes up, knowing full well what was going to come next. An almighty wail came from the baby's throat, making its loud noise known through out the room and probably into the hallway as well. Sweeping the baby up into his arms, Jonathon held him close to his chest and tried to some how muffle out the screams while calming the little squirming thing. It was like holding a sack of live potatoes.

"Kwon! What the heck do we do!"

"First off, stop shouting 'cos you're giving' me an headache and you're upsetting the lad. Second…I…I don't have a clue." The man pursed his lips to the side in a semi apologetic way, causing Jonathon to groan. He could see just outside the window, the lights flicking on and off in the opposite set of shops and the streetlights causing everyone to stall and beep their horns.

"Brian! You did that spell with Brian." Jonathon remembered suddenly but Kwon shook his head and made a show of it by waving his hands at the same time. "No way, that was different."

"Different how?" The sandy haired man questioned, holding the infant on his hip and soothing his hair down gently with his steady thrum of fingers.

"How's one baby with too much power different to another? Why's it different for warlock and mutant, come on mate. We don't know what he's going to do!" Just on cue there was an almighty crash outside their building. Both men headed towards the window and peered outside. Two cars had smashed up against each other, their bonnets almost merged into one forming a Frankenstein contraption. Kwon rolled his eyes and clenched his fingers together. Jonathon looked at him frantically.

"I only did it because my father did it too, and his father too him. He'll gain his powers back when he's four but Johnny…I've never done this on a mutant kid before, it could go wrong." They looked at each other and then at the small sobbing child on Jonathon's hips. Hot tears had struck his face and his lip quivered, threatening to scream once again.

"And if we don't do anything there's going to be a pile up from Boston City to New York State!"

"I couldn't if I wanted to!"

"Why not!"

"Because he's not…"

"Not what!"

"He's not yours!" Kwon grabbed a fistful of dreads and turned from his best friend's scrutinising look. The sandy haired man stammered and found he had no come back to that other than "I know that." It came out rather flatly and Kwon peered over his shoulders, eye's suddenly tired and heavy.

"I need a parent. We can't find her and the only way I could do the spell was if…if someone volunteered."

Jonathon stood silently on the spot with the baby nestled in his arms, an almost perfect fit as if he was made for the crook of his hip and the small grove in his shoulder. The baby took great gulps of air, but was starting to calm ever so slightly, his little fingers curled into tight fists in the mercenary's shirt.

He nodded his head. "I'll do it."

Turning, Kwon gave the barest nod of his head. They both knew this would mean more than being a parent to an infant that didn't yet know the concept of daddy or mummy. It meant giving up everything they had already achieved. Their business, Johnny's life and purpose for being. What was a simple swoop in a retrieve job had become the slow road towards parenthood and taking care of someone he didn't know, didn't have ties with, for the next eighteen years.

It was a big sacrifice. Something Kwon would remind the child if he ever got the chance.

"Find the nearest cemetery, I'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

"Can't you do it here?"

"No." He said flatly. "I need two names, a father and son. Which neither of you are." Kwon frowned and placed his fingers on his chin, drumming slightly as he thought. "Find an old enough grave that can't really be traced and if it's got a father and son name, wait there for me."

"But I don't get-"

"Johnny! We don't have time for if's and but's, just do it! Because _baby stop and go_ here is going to kill someone before his first word if we don't!"

There were ten main cemeteries in the state of Massachusetts and several smaller one's dotted around the area. They were currently in metropolis of Boston, cutting their numbers down to a few. Jonathon chose the nearest one to the hotel; it was a twenty-minute walk that meant he had to cut through the city to get there fast enough. Luckily for them, the baby had fallen to sleep on his shoulder, still clutching his tiny fist in the adult's jumper. Jonathon was accustomed to walking city streets, where the haze of summer was shot through with blasts of air conditioning and doors constantly opening onto the pavement. There would always be some kind of awning or pocket of shade to hide under if need be.

But the pathway towards the Cemetery was bare with only the occasional tree hiding them from the warm June sun. It beat down onto the road and path, baking it underneath his feet and he was ever so glad when the clouds began to blow over, a slow summer thunderstorm on the way. His brain felt baked in his skull, too many thoughts running though his mind and nearly all of them about the infant in his arms. Such a tiny little thing, and so pale. The mercenary pulled his little sun hat further across his eyes and was glad he had managed to cover his arms and face in sun cream before stepping out into the streets. It wasn't as if he didn't have a clue about children, he was Brian's God Father after all. But apart from a squirming nine-month-old warlock, he didn't have much of a clue. Was he really going to say: _fuck it, I can't find her; he'll have to stay with me._ Apparently so.

Up ahead, Jonathon could feel the nearly silent presence of death, not really aware but somehow detectable. Now death, he was accustomed too. It had been in his life for so long that it was now an everyday thing. People are born, they live and then they die and if they're lucky enough, it would not be by his hand.

Sometimes he wondered how he had gone so long without being caught. He was no bounty hunter; they had some kind of protection from the law even if it was minimal at best. But he had Kwon, and that had kept him going for almost ten years.

Two ambitious fifteen year olds with blood on their hands and a smile on their faces. But it hadn't always been like that, it was not as if he had awoken one morning and decided that killing people for money was going to be a good way to pay the rent. Neither had he strolled up to his careers officer and told her exactly what he had wanted to do. It had started with his mother.

_"Stay there baby, don't step anywhere." And he watched as she scrubbed the floorboards of their tiny shack in the south of Ireland. Trying her hardest to get up the stain of her husbands blood but it had left a horrifying mark, covered neatly by a dusty rug._

_"Nothing to worry your little head about." She had told him in her strong accent, golden hair shot through with ginger tied up in a bun on her head. "You didn't mean to do it."_

Shaking his head Jonathon didn't want to think about that right then. Six years old with the old iron clutched hard in his hands. Not that he had been aware of how much adrenaline had coursed through his veins, giving a terrified child the strength he had needed to smash his father's head in.

The graveyard gave off a tiny quiet buzz, like crickets in the sun. It was shady and slight area's were overgrown, tree roots of large tree's working their way down into the soil. Dirt was fertilised by the bodies buried there. The ground was uneven, the weeds in some places tall enough to brush the tip of the baby's feet.

Jonathon knew there were several church cemeteries but this was the oldest one still in use and close enough to their hotel. There were recent stones, letters and dates chiseled so sharply that they seemed to float just above the slick surface of the granite. Flecks of quartz and mica caught the receding light. There were old markers, stone and arched tablets of slate, their edges crumbling, their inscriptions beginning to blur. Those were the ones they needed.

As he passed towards the older graves, he passed a small section of children's and baby graves, white as snow. For a second he thought of the tiny dead mutant child they had passed without a second thought, too much concerned for the tiny thing now cradled in his arms. Not a religious man but rose highly catholic he said a few small words before putting it out of his mind for good. You could not save the dead.

And then, he spotted it.

_**Williams**_

_Ian Williams_

_B. September 4th, 1864_

_Father to Leeland Williams_

_B. February 16th , 1890_

_Died July 7th, 1902_

_Died tragically and suddenly but will never be forgotten._

The grave had not been tended for over half a century, Jonathon could tell that much. He looked at the little boy asleep on his shoulder, tiny mouth partially opened as he dreamed peacefully of nothing important or significant. The soft breeze picked up his hair again, made it shimmer like the clouds; it was almost that colour. The freckles across his nose stood out against the shadows formed from his hat and he stirred ever so slightly.

What would have become of him if Ms. Frost had never known of her secret child? Would he have fallen to the fate of the dead infant? After all, it was apparent that his mutation was nothing psychic and therefore the machine she talked about could not be used. It frightened Jonathon, for he had always believed that you should face the one you kill. That way, they would know, even after death whom had pulled the trigger. It was cowardly not too.

But a machine, hooked up to a person…that was as impersonal as a piss. Something you did without even thinking about it. No, Jonathon would not want to go out like that and unbeknownst to him, he held the little boy a little firmer and closed his eyes for a moment. The sound of the dead filled his ears, like static on a radio station; white noise or something akin to that.

When he opened his eyes, he looked to the side and was met by the pale green of the baby's irises, looking up at the man he had known little over a week. The child blinked and then grinned, showing his tiny pink gums spotted with the white of teeth barely coming through. The man smiled back before looking back at the silent dead grave.

"Leeland it is then."

xxx

Emma awoke with a pounding, searing headache. But then she remembered she was a physic, headaches were part and package. Still, that did not mean she couldn't groan about it. Lifting her arm, she had to shield her eyes from the little light in the room. A room?

The last thing she remembered was the darkness, the painful burning in her lungs and the soft press of lips against her own. It was only then that she remembered that she had tried to kill herself. Of course, she only did it to find Prince Namor. Didn't she?

There was that tiny part inside of her that hoped he would not come. The weight would pull her down into the depths of the dark murky sea but she would be dead before she hit the bottom. Gone before the harsh pressure caused her lungs to explode and her brain to leek from her eyes like tears.

Sitting up, she peered around the room and it seemed that she was lying in a bed of soft white silk in a bed carved from the darkest marble. It had been sculptured beautifully into the shape of a sea horse, it's head reared perfectly at the front. The headboard curved around with arms of an ornate octopus. The walls gave off a soft blue glow, as exotic little fish and tiny sharks swam past the windows.

Only when she had taken in the splendor of the under water room, one of several hundred she mused, did she noticed the man stood in front of his mirror. With hand's clutched at his side, Prince Namor titled his head to the side and a smile appeared on his face.

"You're awake." He stated and Emma gave a small nod of her head but it was a bad idea. The pains seared back into her neck but she let it pass with a simple breath.

"How long have I been asleep?" She questioned, feeling around the sheet's with her fingers. It felt as if something was missing, something that she was not supposed to forget about.

"A good week, give or take an hour." Came the Prince's reply and it was then that Emma remembered what she had forgotten. In one quick swoop she threw the covers from her self and attempted to leave the bed. But her weak legs gave out underneath her, causing her to stumble and almost fall to ground. Namor was quick to grab her, holding her in his arms as if they were newly weds about to cross over the threshold.

"Please, you have to take me back to the surface."

"What? After you decided to kill yourself, just so I would rescue you and then you don't even stay to talk. I feel hurt Emma, I truly do." The Prince smirked, but saw the seriousness in Emma's eyes and tilted his head to the side. Setting her down on the bed, he shook his head. "You've been unconscious for the past week, I'm afraid you're not going anywhere. Besides, haven't you come here to persuade me to be your, what was it again, _White King_? And if this is true and you are the White Queen, should we not be more familiar with each other." He raised his hand; let his fingers through the soft sheen of blonde hair.

"There's that." Said Emma, brushing the hand away. "But there was something rather urgent that I was supposed to do." She frowned and took Namor's hand, pressing his palm to her cheek. But, she supposed a week had past, surely a few more day's would not hurt. After all, Mr. McCorby could not abandon the child even if he wished too. She had made it that way. She was ever such a talented little telepath.

xxx

"Twelve years old…well shit." Was Kwon's only remark at the gravestone that Jonathon had picked from what must have been hundreds. But he supposed it would have to do and stepped closer to the gravestone.

They needed the father and son to act as a "middle man". It would be part trickery on Kwon's behalf; otherwise the spell would not work. A parent and child bonding, he had told Jonathon and the bemused looking baby who hadn't a care in the world other than where his next bottle and mashed fruit was coming from.

"See, we have to make them believe this is you and him." _Them_, something Jonathon never questioned but knew enough about. They where the God's of Kwon's people but he mused they were not so smart if they could trick them in such a way.

From his pocket, he drew a little pocketknife and gestured his friend closer to the grave and held out his hand. Jonathon was hesitant at first, but did as instructed and held out his hand. The sharp knife cut easily into the mercenary's soft palm, splitting like butter. A sharp hot pain spread out across his skin and shot up towards his wrist. It then dulled into nothing more than an ache that would disappear soon enough. A hot red trickle of blood seeped out onto his hand, filling the little lines like tiny rivers. It pooled quickly and trickled over his fingers. Kwon then turned to the baby.

"Sorry little man, but it'll only hurt for a second." Not that the baby was aware that anything dangerous was going to happen to him. Taking the child's tiny hand he made the gentlest and swiftest of cuts. A high shriek filled the air and the baby began to wail, hot tears filling his face and dripping fast down his pale little cheeks. Both men winced. They weren't so heartless.

Kneeling in front of the grave, Jonathon pressed his blood soaked hand onto the grave stone, over the father's name. Kwon took the baby's bleeding hand and pressed it against the child's name, blocking out his high keening cry's of pain.

Circling them both, the warlock began to chant. Unrecognisable words, older than time it's self, poured from his thin lips and flowed upon the two being's in front of him. A soft trickle of blue light spread out from the dreadlocked man and washed over the "father" and child, circling them in magic. It bathed them in the light and the child's energy began to draw away from him. Jonathon noticed this, how his shrieks had turned into a soft pitiful sob and then nothing more.

"Kwon!" Jonathon called, but the warlock ignored him, continued with his words. The baby's soft green light pulled away from him like the residue of ectoplasm and hung in mid air. For a matter of second it simply floated in front of the pair of them before shooting forwards, hitting the mercenary squarely in the chest.

The air was taken from his lungs, causing him to gasp and splutter, his arms pulled tighter around the child. And then it hit him, like touching a car on a hot day and zapping yourself full of static. Every pore in his body screamed as that tiny feeling spread out tenfold and engulfed the man.

Before he realised it, he was on his back. Spread across the leaves and weeds, the body's of the dead crumbling underneath him like so many of his victims before him.

When he opened his eyes, he found Kwon peering over him with the baby on his hip. The little thing had fallen right back to sleep, a little plaster covering the cut on his hand.

"What happened?" he blinked, sitting up, watching as dark clouds stumbled across them. A soft rain began to wash down on them, barely a trickle.

"You passed out." Kwon frowned, and watched as his friend raised his hand towards his forehead, only to look vaguely at the small wad of fabric tied around his hand.

"Did it work though?" He asked and Kwon only grinned at him. "But of course, you're dealing with a professional here." But the warlock knelt down next the friend, holding the sleeping child on his shoulder with a solemn expression upon his face.

"Took his power away from him, but he'll be fine. Brian slept like a log for a few hours and then he was up and about screaming for apple juice."

"Where'd it go?"

"Into you. But don't worry, there's no mutation in there so you can't use it. It's like a recessive gene you'll pass back to him when he's old enough to know how to use it."

"But Johnny listen. This is more than just keeping his powers from him. If you die before you can give them back, he won't have them anymore."

Jonathon turned and held his hands out for the sleeping child and once he was settled upon his hip, he gave a small nod of his head. "Maybe that's a good thing."

"…But it's his power, his mutation. That's not very fair to say. Look…" With a small intake of breath, he set himself down in front of the bloodstained grave and raised his arms up over his knees. "You gotta take care of that mite now, no one else is gonna do it. Even if by some miracle we do find Frost, he's part yours. Not through genes but…there's something there."

Jonathon frowned. The last thing he expected to do was to become a father, but the little boy in his arms needed him. Besides, after ten years, the killings were beginning to weigh on his mind.

"How many do you think we've killed?" He asked suddenly, causing the Warlock to thrown and then he gave a shrug his shoulders. "Like you said Johnny boy…a bucket full."

xxx

"Emma." Shaw sighed and rested his tired head in his hands. The bed beneath him shifted with his weight and he draped his arms across his legs. "It's been two weeks, Emma. Are you dead? His prisoner?"

He stood up and brushed his fingers through his dark straggles of hair. "Either way, it's a waste." He was going to find Emma, one way or another. She was his; he made her who she was. Now she had to pay for the free ride she had been given. What he had found was a dirty little teenager, booted from her own wealth and prosperity. What he made her into was a Queen and she would be made to be grateful for it!

Marching into her room, he peered around the elegant place he had set up for her and stalked across towards the vanity. There, he picked up her hairbrush and a slim smile spread across his lips. "You'll pay for this. You and that arrogant bastard king."

Down in the depths of the Hellfire club mansion there sat a man, too elegantly dressed for the work he did. The room was unlike any of the other's in the building, built so low down to accompany his life's work.

Blonde hair and blue eye's, tinted red from the ominous cast of the computer screen. Such marvelous technology that he knew would only grow with time.

"Here. A single strand of hair. That should provide enough DNA for your little project, right, Pierce?" Shaw walked into the room and headed straight for the man reclining in his chair, making the final arrangement for his work.

"Hmmm. So it should, so it should." Donald Pierce turned, his face was all sharp angles and lines but with the fine bone structure of something more clinical, almost machine like. He turned, and took the piece of flyaway hair from Shaw and placed it under a small microscope and inputted the code for DNA sequencing.

"And as a bonus, the person that strand of hair leads too is with another."

"Ha! A two-for-one deal. I like it Shaw, Excellent work." Pierce smirked but it shifted from his face, causing him to thrown. "This geography…this can't be correct."

"Oh, it's correct. Time to test your sentinels ability to hunt under water." And Shaw peered up and the humanoid monstrosities in front of him. A smirk spread across his lips as he peered into their cold mechanical eyes.

xxx

"So this is what you do down here all day, everyday? Rescue girls from the surface world in hope for a quick reward and then some post coital posing in the mirror?" Emma smirked as she let the silk sheets cling to her barely dressed body.

"Hardly." Came Namor's reply, causing him to turn towards the woman laid out in his bed. "No more than when you play dress up in a basement and wait hand and foot on the desires of chubby old vanity cases all day, every day." Came his rather blunt and to the point reply.

Emma gave a soft half shrug of shoulder, but she supposed Namor was half right. It paid her way, didn't it? Did that make her a bad person? No, she thought, but it won't exactly make you a model mother.

"Sometimes I'm not sure that's not what I do…You see Namor, the thing abut Shaw-"

There came an almighty crash and the side of the room crumbled away into nothing. All at once, the water of the sea began to pour into the room and the ominous face of a sentinel robot came crashing through along with it.

"Two mutant's located! Eliminate all genetic aberrations!" It's hoarse mechanical voice boomed into the depths of the room.

"Friend of yours?" Namor questioned as the loud roar of water and building material began to crumble around them. "Not by a long shot!"

Namor gave Emma one last fleeting look before he soared upwards, the wings on his ankles beating furiously as he punched straight through the eye socket of one of the mechanical men. "Extermin01011-"

It's head split and shattered into a thousand different pieces, each one mingling and falling with the debris and water.

"Good Lord!" It appeared that there were several of the machines surrounding his underwater kingdom, each one doing it's bit to destroy the place he called home and the people in it he ruled over. "So much carnage…in so little time."

The water seeped in around her, causing Emma to shiver and press her hands around her cooling flesh. It gushed through the widow and in the through the hole the mutant hunting robot had created. Maybe now she would die? It seemed like Namor was not coming back for her. But she had a duty, she had things to find out and people, a person, to protect. Her own father had kicked her out without a passing thought, she would not leave her own in the dark.

Was that really fair though, on either them? Emma had known nothing of the child and she mused as the water surrounded her that she didn't want to know. Young, oh she was ever so young and would a child not halt her in her way? No! She couldn't think like that.

"You! FROST! Do you really think I'm so stupid as to not see through you little ruse? You staged that stunt and lead these things to my home!" Namor had returned but he seemed in no big rush to swoop in and save Emma like he had done before. Instead, he looked about ready to push her head under the surface and let her lay with the fishes.

"That thing wanted to kill me as much as it wanted to kill you. They're mutant hunters called sentinels." Came her reply as she raised her hand towards her mouth, trying to stop the water from lapping into her face as she spoke.

"Now do you see what Shaw wants to accomplish? A mutant power base to prevent our very extinction! To fight back against these things trying to snuff us out at all costs." The water steadily rose and it was soon up to her chin, her feet nowhere near the floor or bed any longer.

"You might consider yourself an Atlantean but genetics don't lie. You're one of us whether you like it or not…If you weren't, they wouldn't have come. These things hunt us!"

And before she realised, he had done it again. Swooped down and plucked her from the water, holding her firmly by the waist and peered into her startled blue eye's. "This is an act of war. And now we retaliate."

xxx

"You seriously can't be heading back to the States?" Kwon stared at his friend over the small scrubbed breakfast table in his little English cottage. It was a modest little house in the heart of North Yorkshire, quiet enough to not be known but not so far off the beaten track that they could not reach the nearest towns. The dark haired baby, sitting on his knee, very nearly rolled his eyes and lunged for his spoon. His father had been in the middle of feeding him, but then had rudely forgotten about baby Brian.

Jonathon gave a soft shrug of his shoulders and peered over at the sleeping infant in his car seat. That's all the baby ever seemed to do, sleep and occasionally giggle at something no one else could see.

"I need to find her-"

"She's a mutant Johnny boy. Don't you think she could have found you if she wanted to?" With a shrug of his shoulders, he looked down at the little boy in his lap and gave him an apologetic and almost harassed smile. "Sorry little Bee, uncle Johnny was having a small crisis. Look, what are you going to do with him if you swan back to the states?" Kwon asked but his friend only grinned at him. "What! I've got my hands full with this one!"

Jonathon shook his head and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes-no-the warlock _was_ hopeless. "You have a wife idiot, you haven't got your hands full at all. Besides, I've already asked Josie." He left Kwon to his spluttering and crossed over the small kitchen towards the blonde baby and knelt down in front of him.

"I'm going to find your mam Lee, promise."

And the baby boy stirred in his sleep and gave a tiny sigh, as if summing the whole situation up in one go.

xxx

It appeared that the monstrosity known as the sentinel had broadcasted data signals back to a location on the surface world. The two mutants left at once and Emma scowled at the thought of being 'flown' through the water to reach dry land.

Soaking wet, they landed not to far from her own home in Massachusetts, her mind heavy with everything resting upon her shoulders. First the child, and now this. Whatever would be next?

"Namor, we don't know what to expect and I can't read anything going on inside-Be careful."

It was a dock bound warehouse, big enough and probably deep enough to fit the sentinels secretly inside.

"Like hell." Came Namor's rather sparse reply, causing Emma to roll her eyes. Men, it seemed, were the same whether on the surface world and swimming deep with the fishes.

The Prince of the oceans aimed at the closest wall, sending the brickwork crumbling into a dusty pile. Rather like what had happened with his palace and a small part of him felt petty and proud.

Inside revealed an assortment of machines that certainly looked far more advanced than the era they were made in. Certainly, the man who had jumped at the rather unconventional entrance was dressed in a high cravat, his dark almost _Barbie_ doll textured hair was pulled back into a style more fitting of nineteenth century gentlemen.

"YOU! Your hour of reckoning is at hand!" Namor roared and silence penetrated through the building.

"Ah-ah-ah." Came a voice from the darkness. "Not so fast. This is Private Property." The body of Sebastian Shaw appeared from the Shadows, a dark smile spread across his hard-set jaw. "More specifically, _my_ private property."

And then everything Emma had ever devised about Shaw, set deep into the back of the mind where no one could reach it, became true. Of all the thoughts she had about the man, all the slimy sick feelings he gave her came ten fold to the surface. He really was as bad as she perceived him too be. But he had saved her from that awful desert, had set her on the almost straight and narrow. Now she knew who he really was.

"You? This facility is yours?" Namor questioned, his face hidden from the light but the harsh quiet tone spoke clearly of his anger.

"Sebastian, this is where the sentinels were broadcasting data…" Emma tried to comprehend everything that had happened to her, but this small truth hurt more than anything else. Deep down, she hoped there had been some kind of mistake. But the smile on Shaw's face spoke volumes.

"Of course, Emma. The federal government is going to build these things one way or another. Why shouldn't I fulfill the contract? Keep you enemy's close, yes? Especially when they make you rich."

The blonde stood in front of them let a smile grace his own lips, eye's glowing an ominous blood red.

"Your petty little stunt endangered my people!" Namor roared as his fist recoiled, soaring through the air and straight for Shaw's smug little expression. But Sebastian had the upper hand and quickly took a hold of that fist.

"Did your little strumpet tell you how my powers work, boy? I metabolize energy. Absorb it-" With his unoccupied first, Shaw punched him as hard as the energy absorbed would let him. "-And re-direct it!" Namor hit the ground hard; blood spurted from his nose and skin split from his lip, letting hot blood ooze down onto his chin.

Unfortunately for Shaw, he had turned his back.

"GOOD!" Namor roared and before Sebastian could register what he was seeing from the corner of his eye, the Prince flew forward and threw the other mutant as hard as he could into the merciless machinery behind him. "I was worried that beating you to death wouldn't be a challenge!"

The previously silent sentinels roared to life behind them and Namor gave the slightest tilt of his head in their direction. "Hold it there, fish guy." Donald Pierce stood in front of the machines, they where at his beck and call. "You throw another punch and you're toast."

"We could have ruled the world, you and I." Shaw spat the blood from his mouth, wiped its sticky residue on the back of his neat tailored sleeve. "The power we could have amassed would be epic. But you had to go and get snooty."

"You would kill your own in the name of power? That doesn't make you a leader, it makes you a tyrant." His tone was calm, pity laced through his words and Namor gave a small shake of his head.

"Shaw, how could you?" Emma felt sick, it was the only way she could describe the feeling inside. "Those things have killed mutants. They've hunted and killed our own kind-"

"I don't want to rule mutant kind, Emma. The Hellfire club has never been obsessed with such trivial things." The man replied, being helped to his feet by Pierce. "I want the world Emma. And I want it now….Selene?"

A dark haired woman, dressed in a liquid suit of black latex stepped from behind the wreckage of the machinery and with a simple flick of her hand, she rendered Emma unconscious.

"Telepaths. Gotta love 'em" Smirked Shaw. "Emma won't remember any of this when we're done. I thought she was dead or perhaps your prisoner. I thought she was a failure. I never imagined she'd betray me."

"Shaw…You bastard." Namor spat but the man only shook his head and stepped around his little White Queens, running his chubby coleus laced fingers through her soft blonde locks. "I'm surrounded by telepaths that will keep me safe from you the rest of my life. You'll never get near me again Namor. You won't get ten miles near me."

"You surface dwellers…I swear. You're all savage and this isn't over Shaw."

"Yes it is. And yes we are." Commented Shaw, watching as Namor turned from them all. "And surely we'll all burn in Hellfire."

xxx

Perhaps, after all, he was doing the right thing. Jonathon believed that he was not cut out for fatherhood. Certainly his own had never left him with any knowledge on how to raise a child. All McCorby Senior had left were unpleasant memory's and belt scars on his back that had not faded in twenty years.

He was not that baby's father, there was nothing really that connected them.

_Well, that's not true._ Commented a little voice in his head and he supposed it was right. What did connect them was the spell binding them both together. Even if he did find Emma and hand him over, they where still joined until he was at least four years of age.

With a shake of his head, he put his mind in work mode and peered up at the back of the Hellfire Club. It was a grand old building, not far from the actual graveyard they had been at less than a week before. Of course, they had tried to search the building with the aid of Kwon's spells, but there was nothing that indicated that she had been there for a while.

It was not as if they could just stroll up to the front door, knock and ask whether Emma wanted to come out and play. Besides, he hardly doubted that she had told anyone about Leeland.

Jonathon knew he was getting terribly attached to that name for the boy. But he had threatened Kwon with no more children if he so much as thought about calling him _Ian_. Reminded him of a boy he had gone to school with, who had died in the night after an epileptic fit when no one had been awake to hear or save him. The name bought bad luck.

_Ahh yes, but isn't the baby named after some poor kid who died too young to be considered alive?_ After that, he told the voice in his head to shut the hell up.

Emma sat at her vanity desk, brushing a soft silver comb through her hair, peering at the mirror as if it where perhaps made of water. For a few days now, it seemed as if she had been living in a world of her own. In the space between consciousness and the awake. Everything for the past three weeks had been purged from her mind, including one little baby boy who had no one to call mummy.

For the last few days, she had not been Emma Frost.

A noise struck up behind her, causing her to jump, which was very unlike the White Queen indeed. The flu, yes, she must be coming down with the flu. After all, she had not been feeling herself of late and even Sebastian had commented how pasty looking she had appeared. As if caught up down in the depths of the sea with no means of escape.

But that was absurd. Namor had politely turned down Shaw's request and that was the end of that. So why did she awake at night with the sound of water rushing around her ears and the feeling as if something was missing.

It felt as if there was someone there that was no longer apparent. Like two people talking in a room and they both leave suddenly. Their energy, presence, is still there loud and clear just not very apparent on the surface.

"Who's there? I warn you, I'm in no mood for games." She sighed and stood up, her long white gown flowing over her delicate bones hiding them perfectly from sight. She wore very little underneath, but there really seemed no need when she had important guests to "entertain."

It was then that the man appeared from behind the heavy white curtains settled against her window. He could not have been a few years older than she. With sandy blonde hair and eye's as grey as shadows. He stepped towards her and she moved back.

"Ms. Frost?" He questioned causing her to frown and tilt her head to the side.

"Ms. Frost. Emma, it's me. It's Jonathon." He spoke as if it should come flowing back to her, but she still stared at him as he was a mere stranger out on the sidewalk.

"Who? How did you get in here?"

As he tried to walk forward, Emma held a hand to her head, forcing him to stop with one foot off the ground. "I asked you who you were and how you got in here. If you don't answer me, I'll peel you're mind like a ripe fruit." Her voice was soft and crisp, as if she had not a care in the world. There was nothing this intimidating, yet young looking, man could do to her that she could not give back ten fold.

"Kwon was right. Crazy bitch, you've had me all along!" The man gritted his teeth, tried in vain to move forward but couldn't.

"I asked you who the hell you were, now talk!" Her voice could just be as harsh but the man shook his head. He kept shaking it until a small smile spread across his lips and he began to laugh.

"No…No you're not crazy. I'm not going to let that warlock get the better of me. Something or someone's happened to you by the time you contacted me and now. God, I did not prepare for this." He looked up then, with those startling grey eyes and sheer mass and stared at Emma. "Take a peek, there's nothing there I can hide or change. I'm no mutant, not a Meta human even. Just a very silly Irish man keeping a promise."

"Sit." Emma forced the man, this Jonathon down into the nearest soft padded seat and took several strides over towards him. Her gown flowed over her legs; milky against the pure white of the silk she wore. She would not call Sebastian, she could very well take care of her self. Besides, he seemed harmless enough.

"Let's see what you're rabbiting on about and whether or not you're worth the bother to kill." And she leaned forward, placing her hands just above his temples, brushed her fingers through the short buzz cut. Her eye's remained open as she shifted and sifted through the complexity of the strangers mind.

Dangerous. Oh he was very dangerous indeed and she wondered for a second if he had been sent to kill her. But that was absurd; she could give him an aneurysm if she so wished it or make him believe he was a nine-year-old girl named Sally. No, this was something different.

There! Three weeks ago, was that really her? Some sort of arrangement, terms and times to ring and then….

"No! No not them…" She let out a harsh whisper and stumbled backwards, letting her hold on the stranger go.

It was then that it hit her. Emma Frost had forgotten about _him_…but there he was to haunt her for the rest of her days. A tiny little blonde thing with eye's so alien that he frightened her.

A son, a clone, whatever he was, that infant terrified her down to her bones.

**TBC~**


	13. Life, loathe it, ignore it

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 22/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 13:** Life, loathe it, ignore it, you can't like it

Leeland had missed Halloween. Having been unconscious for two weeks and confined for the next, he had completely let it blow by. Not that he really minded, it was never fun trick or treating as a kid when you knew you couldn't really eat all of the sweets you had swindled out of old lady's. Well, that was Brian's trick at any rate.

No, looking down into the little bag Nicholas had handed him, he realised how ordinary the whole thing was. Here was a little boy, covered head to toe in short brown fuzz with the temper or an irritated puppy, and he had still found time to go trick or treating.

Picking up a rather sticky blue thing, he popped it into his mouth and let the taste of raspberry melt against his tongue. How intriguing that the colour of raspberry was not pink, but a blue so unnatural that he could taste the E Numbers.

"You stare into space a lot." he heard the voice but it took him a second or two to realise that Nicholas was speaking to him. Snapping out of his staring contest with the floor, he turned towards the little boy and rubbed a hand through his fly away hair. "Ah suppose." He muttered, shivering in the cold of early November. Dressed in a t-shirt, jumper, coat and scarf the boy could still feel the chill through the layers.

Nicholas frowned, always too warm whatever the weather but Victor had made him put a jacket on just in case. They were sat on a stone bench in the gardens, watching as Victor tossed a bright yellow Frisbee back and forth between himself and little Ernst. Grumbling, the boy stood up and shuffled over to Ernst, with his arms cross over his chest and a scowl on his face. "Is it my turn yet?" He whined. The wolf child was much too rough when it came to playing with the girl, despite her super strength, and had been made to sit on the bench with Leeland. A small part of him felt like the fat kid when it came to sports day; left on the bench with the kid who couldn't breath properly.

With a role of his eye's, Victor lightly threw the Frisbee in their direction and pointed towards him. "Play nice." He warned and Nicholas's face erupted into an ear reaching grin.

Leaving the giggling children, he headed over the bench, rubbing his gloved hands together. There was a rather odd cold spell going on and the lizard boy never did too well in the cold. Summer, summer was the best time for him.

"You're being awfully quiet." Victor sat down next to the blonde, their knee's touching between the folds of jeans. The tall blonde shrugged slightly, his shoulder's drooped, his back slightly hunched over. Victor wondered for a moment if it was difficult being that tall, it seemed that Leeland was trying to make him self smaller somehow. Pushing six foot three before he was eighteen and it did not look like he was going to stop growing any time soon.

"Just…thinkin', ah guess. Ah mean, it's not everyday yah find out you're a…a, well, whatever I am." Leeland admitted, turning to look at Victor with his head resting on his hand. "Ah jus' wanted to paint."

"There's nothing stopping you." Said Victor kindly but Leeland smiled at him, a rather sad little thing indeed. "Yeah but, what does an experiment need to paint for?"

Leeland fell silent after that, facing forward to watch Ernst and Nicholas run about of the frozen lawn.

"Don't talk like that." It came out quietly and Leeland was not sure, at first, if he had heard him at all. Turning, he began to frown but it melted away when he saw Victor's angry little expression. Chewing on the corner of his lip, he wasn't quite sure what to say. Victor was avoiding his eyes and he shifted slightly so they weren't as close to each other.

"Sorry." Leeland muttered.

"What are you saying sorry for?" Victor suddenly asked, the anger in his face replaced by something softer. The blonde shrugged again, feeling just as miserable as the weather. "Didn't mean to piss you off."

"You're not!"

"Ah jus' thought 'cos you said-" He was cut off by the sound of Victor chuckling, trying to hide the smirk behind his gloved hand. "S-Sorry." He said between giggles. "I really don't mean to laugh but you're not _pissing me off_, Lee." With a shake of his head, he scooted closer to Leeland and peered up at him, the laughter replaced with a smile. "Don't give up your painting, your art or whatever. Just because you're a mutant, doesn't mean you have to be an X-man." He sighed and faced forward, a smile in the corner of his mouth. "When there where millions of us, there wasn't millions of X-men, a couple of teams here and there sure but…most people came to the school and left to get real jobs. Heck, a tonne of mutant kid's didn't even come to the school. I remember Mister Summer's going missing for weeks when he was interviewing potentials for the scholarship; lived out of a suitcase. But Lee, this whole experiment thing…" he frowned, leaning forward with his gloved hands grasped together in front of him. "You're almost eighteen, right?" He asked and Leeland nodded, counting down the weeks silently inside the solitude of his own mind.

"Well…for seventeen of those years you've been with your dad-"

"He isn't my dad." Leeland interrupted quietly and Victor raised his hand. "Let me finish."

"He raised you, didn't he? Didn't keep you locked in a cupboard under the stairs or, I dunno, beat you within an inch of your life?" He questioned though Leeland was sure he hadn't meant too. With a smile and shake of his head the blonde leaned back on the bench. They sat in relative comfortable silence after that, watching Nicholas run for the Frisbee like an over excited puppy. A weight pressed up against his arm and Leeland looked down at the top of Victor's head, the green mutant was resting against his shoulder. "Don't say you're just an experiment, kay?"

"Ok." Leeland replied quietly, his stomach in happy little knots while his head was a jumble of pain and thoughts. So many questions, so little few people to ask. He wondered how long he could keep it all to himself without erupting. Well, he had already done that with Doctor McCoy but the boy was sure there was still something left.

After all, he needed to save it for Emma Frost.

xxx

The warehouse was silent, apart from the odd barks of order muffled outside by Stark's personal army. There was an uncomfortable feeling in the air of embarrassment and shame and it was not only coming from Emma but from Scott as well. From the start he assumed the boy to be some kind of ploy, a trap planted in their little secure gathering of few number's. It shamed him to find out that he had been wrong, that the child was the most innocent part in the bigger scheme.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Was the only thing that came to his mind, watching as Emma peered up at him through her curtain of pale blonde hair, her cheeks resting behind her fingers. He expected scorn and sarcasm and was mildly surprised to find neither on her face.

"It's not exactly something you admit on a first date, is it Scott? By the way I have a secret child all the way in England being raised by a man I barely know." She turned away from him, sat with her head resting on her hand and closed her eyes. It was better when she couldn't see everyone and when no one put her to shame.

"And I still don't know where I was during those three week's…or why I forgot about the boy."

"Stop calling him that." Jonathon frowned, a look of distain on his face. "He has a name and he's no more a boy than you're a little girl." He shifted in his bindings and turned to look at Scott. "I took him back to England with me…it was better that way."

"Better!" Emma spat. "What was better Johnny? The drugs? The control. He look's like a bag of stick's!" She rose to her feet, the pallet she was perched on clattered behind her and echoed through out the warehouse. It took much of her control not to simply wipe his mind and even more not to march over to him and smack his senseless smirk from his face.

"You made that child sick when I trusted you to take care of him."

"If you cared that much Emma you would have taken him yourself."

"Oh so that's what this is?" Emma let out a coy laugh and spread her fingers across her mouth, as if to stop the laughter pouring out. "A punishment is it? Make him sick, make him timid to punish me because maybe I could have done a better job-"

"Always so melodramatic. I did what I had to do."

Scott scowled beneath his visor. "What you had to do? You didn't have to do anything. He could have come to Xavier's, no one would have known who he was; no one would have said a thing." He glanced at his wife who refused to meet his eyes.

"You don't understand." Jonathon began through gritted teeth.

"Try me, because I have plenty of time to listen-"

"HE'S DANGEROUS!" The ex mercenary shouted, his old hardened heart hammering away inside his rib cage as he locked gaze with Scott. "God knows I love that kid but he's not right…not made right."

"I've got lipstick more dangerous than he is." Emma said quietly. "Now hurry up and explain or-"

"Or what? You threaten me with a mind wipe. Make me think I'm a nine-year-old girl? Open empty threats I've heard all before. Mr. Summers…" He spoke with eyes still on Emma. "You have that machine in your school, do you not? Cerebro?"

Nobody outside the X-men team knew about Xavier's most prized invention. Only a select few like Tony Stark, other hero's, and a few villains, knew of its existence. It was a powerful machine but it was not as if everyone knew how to use it or what it was intended for. So why then, did this nowhere man, this swapped identity know about it?

"What about it?" Scott asked carefully, there was no point in denying it's existence if he already knew about it. Jonathon McCorby had made it quite clear that he was not as stupid as he looked.

"Doesn't work without a person controlling it, does it? You have to be psychic to use it, Xavier's pride and joy. There's a machine out there with his name on, made just for him. Very hard to control a telepath, unfortunately-" His eye's glanced at Emma. "But a kid? His powers are electrical, machinery?"

"He talk's to thing's, to people." But Scott frowned. "Hang on, how do you know about his mutation if you've kept it hidden all these years?"

"Just a guess from what I saw when he was little." But there was a certain amount of falter in his voice, but Scott let it go….for then anyway.

"Hook him up to a machine like that, he act's like the control centre, the motherboard. Over ride the system, whatever it is that makes a person have free will and you have your very own mind control machine. Make him think about a certain language…"

"This sound's very sci-fi." Tony interjected, causing Jonathon to scoff. "So you say from a suit made out of jet packs and booster rockets. Another dimension and you'd be the makings of a comic book superhero."

"He's not just a person he's a part."

"A part?" Questioned Tony and the old man tilted his head back, a tired look in his eyes. "A loose screw, a wire, a chip. There's a machine out there with his name on it and all someone has to do is fit him in it."

They looked at him, not quite wanting to believe what he had said. With a tried sigh the man rolled his eyes. "I did my research. Did you really think I'd take him without finding out what he was, what he was made for?"

"This-None of this makes sense." Scott frowned, but there was just something that just didn't seem right. But he would voice his opinion later with out the influence of McCorby.

"You're not making a very convincing argument here Johnny. You where supposed to look after him and you failed. Using danger as an excuse for treating him that way-"

"Emma." Scott tried gently but the woman scowled and shook her head. "No. No I will not be spoken down to, spoke to like an infuriating child that can't get it's own way."

"But you'll act like one." Came Jonathon's retort. A little more than a second passed before a great crack sounded out around the warehouse. Her hand stung but she didn't let the pain cross her face as she stood over McCorby, her breathing ragged with anger. The sandy haired man clenched his jaw, unable to rub at his stinging cheek but the impact was there in his eyes. "I stupidly trusted you and failed my-Well I failed him, whatever."

Scott pulled her backwards and the three of them stared down at the worn Irish man, wondering what they would do with him.

"We should move him from here, we're not getting anywhere here." Tony suggested, saying that perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D head quarters would be the better place to detain him.

"No." Said Emma. "No we take him to Xavier's."

"And what about Leeland?"

"…If he see's him, he see's him. There's nothing we can do about that."

"I meant you."

Emma's reply was cold. "I'm not his mother. I didn't carry him, I didn't raise him. He doesn't need to know."

McCorby chuckled. "Never did change, did you Emma?"

xxx

Meanwhile, in the underground depths of the institute, Kitty stormed out of the room that housed Cerebro. "That bitch! That evil, evil bitch!" Unable to find the right words to describe her feelings towards Emma, the brunette instead repeated the words over and over. Peter was hot on her tail, making sure she did not do something stupid; like tell the boy.

"Girls?" Doctor McCoy questioned the triplets when they had settled their helmets down onto the resting stands. "Did you know about this?"

The girls looked at one and other before Celeste spoke of their suspicions. "We…We thought perhaps there was a connection." They lied, they had known all along but had not thought to say a word. After all, it was really no one's business but Miss Frost's and Leeland's. As much as their "mother" infuriated them, they had sense of pride and loyalty towards her still.

"May we ask you not to tell him? It would not seem right coming from one of you."

Beast blinked at this but nodded his head, it seemed like a reasonable enough request but he felt awful for keeping it from Leeland.

At first, he assumed Emma to be apart of it all, those files from her room a major break through in his ideas. However, there was certainly more to it now, now that they knew the truth.

Furthermore. If Emma was his mother, then who was his rightful father…?

"You're thinking too hard Doctor McCoy." The girl's spoke as one as they left the room, turning to look over their shoulders. "We don't know who our father is, but we've hardly let it hold us back."

"We need to tell him, he deserves to know!" Kitty exclaimed, trying to argue with Peter that her way of doing things would be better than sitting around and letting him figure it out for himself, or simply not tell him at all. "Katya…It's not our place to tell him or to make her do it. You heard what she said, she didn't raise him."

"That's beside the point. Wouldn't you want to know?"

"Peter's right Kitty, it's not our place. Though I must admit that it doesn't leave me with a great feeling either." Frowning, Hank removed his glasses and proceeded to clean them, a ritual he went through whenever there was simply too much floating about his head.

"See it from Emma's point of view-"

Kitty Scoffed.

"She was younger that you are now, barely a child herself. Besides, I don't think she even knew when we found him."

"So we keep quiet, do nothing?" Kitty shook her head, frowning as she leaned against the cool metal panels.

"We do what we're supposed to. We teach him how to use his powers in hopes that one day he'll put them to good use. Emma'll come clean one day…she always does."

**TBC~**


	14. Reality Is Frequently Inaccurate

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 22/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 14:** Reality Is Frequently Inaccurate

Blood descended downwards, mingled with water as it swirled and stained the porcelain sink. The lights flickered back and forth; the body's mounted upwards and upwards, towering over and pressing the weight of the world down upon tired shoulders. But that was the price to pay for where she had crawled from.

Leeland awoke with a gasp; sitting upwards in what he hoped was a pool of his own sweat. Luck was with him that night and he breathed a sigh of relief, running shaken fingers through his damp matted hair. It was getting long again, and he snarled it around one of his fingers only to let it spring backwards. What a peculiar dream it had been, but he supposed nightmare would have been a more accurate term. Then again, he never did have normal dreams.

The sky was inky blue out side, streaked with the cold of purple and a hot fusion of orange that would not be sufficient enough to heat the ground. The clock flashed 4am and the boy knew he would never get back to sleep.

Peeling off the sweat soaked t-shirt and shorts, he grabbed up a jumper from the floor and his jeans. They were cold at first, but soon warmed against his body and he padded across the room in a hurried little fashion to turn on the light. Once the room was engulfed in brightness, he breathed a sigh of relief. Nodding to himself, he made his way over to the desk and took up his sketchbook and pencil. The bed was far too damp to sit on and the chair hurt his back when he sat in it too long. So, the floor was the next best option. Sitting next to the desk, he rested against the oak panel and turned the pages of the book.

After what Victor had told him about being more than what he was, he had scored himself a sketchbook from the art room. The paints and brushes in the room surely tempted him, made his fingers itch, but he knew first and foremost that what he needed were rough's. Without them he would be painting blindly.

Where as the other students liked to run about and hang in front of the television, Leeland preferred to sit in the corner and collect his observations. So when Josh and Julian had appeared, they had played basket ball while he sat on the sidelines and sketched. The lines where rough but precise, not pressed on too hard for that ruined the paper. Neither did he believe in rubbing out mistakes, because sometimes the faults made the piece perfect.

His hand would move to the rhythm of his own breathing, the beat of the ball on the ground and the soft panted voices of the boy's in front of him. Every now and again, his head would glance upwards before disappearing once again into the curtain of white blonde.

There were several sketches of the ground's, the court and the basketball hoop. But Leeland's talent lay in portraits and capturing the essence of a human being on the paper. It transpired that Victor was his favourite person to draw as he kept finding interesting way's to capture the spiked carapace upon his head.

The other boy's had wanted to see what was so important to draw that he couldn't join in the game, but Leeland had quickly closed the book and slipped it inside his jacket. They were not finished. Besides they were _his_ sketches, the way _he_ saw the world. It was not that he minded people seeing them but he did have an awful lot of Victor and that thought alone made his nose pink.

Now, the page was a mess of sharp lines and curved swirls of what he recognised to be a sink. A woman stared at her self in a cracked mirror, half perfection and half horror. The body's piled behind her, rotting flesh and oozing the grey mark of graphite. Had she perhaps killed these people, or was there more to it than that? Had she fought tooth and claw to get where she was, only to find that it really wasn't worth it? Leeland didn't know. Dreams never told him anything.

Setting the book down on the carpet, he drew his knee's up towards his chest and laid his hand out flat in front. Warmth settled in his palm and he concentrated with all his might to bring forth the strange little light within him. It came at once like an obedient little dog and he thought perhaps it was an entity all on it's own. The colour shifted from blue to green, settling on what he could only describe as aqua. Did these colours mean anything? It was quiet, no sound of crackling energy only a happy little ball of collected…stuff? A tiny burning sun encased in a soap like bubble. He wondered on the probability of it's chosen form and shook his head.

"What are you? Electric or…" He shook his head once again and frowned, realising that he was now speaking to himself. Sending it away, he supposed he should eat something before he went completely insane. Even if, he were led to believe, it would make time go faster. Smiling to himself, he cast one last glance at the image before him and it caused him to frown.

Of late, his drawings were dark. So very dark with only the barest hint of light.

One day he would start drawing rainbows and bunny rabbits again and everything would be hunky dory. Yeah, and the pope would come out of the closet.

With a shake of his head, he shoved his socked feet into his trainers and made his way towards the door. On passing Victor's room, he wondered whether to wake him up but decided to let sleeping lizards lie. Besides, he pretty much knew his way around the school now.

It was cold and he wrapped his arms around his chest, sniffling slightly. Before bed, he'd sneezed several times and realised he was probably coming down with a cold. Victor had blamed himself, saying it was a bad idea to stay out so long. But a cold was the least of his worries. It was a bit of normality if anything. Not that Doctor McCoy was amused when he went to retrieve his diabetes medicine. The blue mutant had seemed edgy and had been acting particularly strange towards him. Leeland wondered if he had done something wrong but no matter how much he racked his brain, he came up with nothing. (Apart from shouting at him for answers, which he had already profusely apologised for.)

The whole school was eerily quiet and the boy chewed on his lip, the ring in his mouth clattering against his teeth. The kitchen was a little better with the soft hum of the refrigerator and he took a strawberry milkshake from the back. It was then that he heard the mighty roar of an engine and something he was connected too.

The jet was back!

It was the first piece of machinery he had ever been able to control and a part of him was still with it, just as much as the machine was apart of him. It spoke softly and smooth were as the people around him hurt his head. But he would happily take the pain if it took away the quiet.

Without drinking the shake he hurried towards the lift, eager to see if they had located his father, more eager to round on Miss Frost. That woman had an awful lot of explaining to do but Beast's words floated through his head:

_"No one is to come down here tomorrow, do I make myself clear?"_

That was why he had all of he medication up in his room, the insulin in a handy little cool box under his bed.

But if they found his father…his _supposed_ father? Scowling, he made up his mind and pressed the button to the lift.

xxx

In quick succession, they had moved Leeland's father from the jet and into one of the lower sub basements that they used as temporary prison cells. There he could be detained and questioned without raising the suspicion of his son. Emma admitted that she barely knew him but the safety of their students always came first, including the boy. Keeping them separate was the only way to deal with what Scott had described as a "mess".

"He's lying. Something doesn't add up and he's lying through his teeth about it." The Cyclops rubbed at the bridge of his nose, eager to soothe his tired eyes.

"You figure that one out dear, let us all know when you've cracked his secret."

"You're not taking this very serious Emma." Tony commented, resting in the doorway with his iron helmet secured under his arm. He wanted to do his own questioning; the elusive warlock was still out there. That was, if he even existed.

"There's simply nothing he can do down there. Question him to your heat's content darling but he won't tell you a thing. Yes-" She raised her hand, stopping Scott's interjection. "Something isn't right. The numbers don't add up, but he's a killer not an actor. He'll let slip eventually." She was ready for bed, and wondered what it would be like to not have to get up again. There would be no more shopping trips, but on the plus side, no more bad hair day's.

"But he's adamant he didn't put him in the hospital. So someone else did. Weapon Plus always finds a way to spring back…" Scott knew that only a few year's after Leeland was born, they had started plan's on their next weapon; Laura. He wondered what the two would be like if they had swapped places but if McCorby's information was correct, they would probably all be dead. Not exactly a comforting thought.

xxx

The sub basement was quiet, and Leeland hugged the milk shake to his chest as he walked the cold plated floor. The designs of the lower levels fascinated him, made him wonder what treasures lay inside the paneling. He could hear it all, the soft drone of the Danger Room and the ever-increasing mystery of the room the students were banned from: Cerebro.

He had heard about it in passing, that it was the machine Xavier built to find other mutants. From that point on, it had pestered Leeland and he was sure it had been calling for him. Stopping in his tracks he scowled and then smiled. Of course the machines were not calling to him. He was over reacting again.

A noise behind him caused him to jump and freeze on the spot.

"You're not supposed to be down here Blondie."

The boy gulped and peered over his shoulder at the short Canadian that he towered over by at least a foot if not more. But size meant nothing compared to a man who could stab him in the lungs and not feel any remorse about it. Leeland faltered for what to say, turning and rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Ah couldn't sleep. Jus'…Jus; wanted to know if-"

"If they have your Dad? Kid, they'll tell you." Logan frowned, but his expression softened. This one was going to be hard to work with. A smell lingered around him, both medical and metallic but with the sharp sting of static. Yes, that was what he could smell. But it was sweet like he had swum in treacle. All of this bottled up in skin and bones with the timid personality of a rabbit.

"Come on then Blondie, if you're awake we better put you to good use." Logan began to walk past him, stalking towards the Danger Room.

"What do yah mean?" Leeland asked and in return gained Logan's snide little grin. "Let's get some meat on those bones of yours."

The room was just as he remembered it, minus the rather large dinosaur trying to eat both him and Victor. "Uhh, Mr. Logan. This room isn't exactly safe."

"That would be why they call it the Danger room Blondie, and its just Logan. Mr. Logan makes me feel I should be wearing a bow tie." The older mutant moved over towards one of the side panels and opened it up. "I'm taking the nano's off line. That mean's today it's just a room. A big grey empty metal room."

"They should get a plant for the corner." Leeland muttered in the doorway.

"Don't be smart-"

"Ah'm not."

Logan scowled. "You haven't got a uniform yet, right? Not that it'll make a difference."

"Ah don't think one would fit me. Ah've seen those moon boots yah make 'em all wear. I'd fall over."

Logan peered over his shoulder, gave the boy a once look over and shrugged his shoulders. "You'll do for now."

"So? What are we doing?"

"We're training. You want to learn how to defend your self or stand there hugging dairy products?"

Leeland quickly shuffled into the room, leaving the shake at the side before rubbing his slightly sweaty hands on the side of his jeans. "Ah'm not all that good at fightin'. Curlin' up in ball was always my trick if any one tried to lay into me." Either that, or scream like a girl and run but he was not going to add that bit.

"You want a class in self pity, you find Mr. Summers. Want to be a smart mouth, go to Hank. I read those files on you, I know what you are, who you are and what they wanted you to be." He said it rather bluntly and Leeland did not quite register at first what he meant. Then it hit him in the only way brick's could; hard and heavy and he found himself scowling at the floor.

"How'd you know what they wanted me to be! You ain't got no secret government after you or, what ever t'hell they are!" He found himself scowling, his breathing hard and ragged and still sniffling with the cold.

"Blondie…you don't know nothing."

Leeland looked up, the man was closer than he first realised. "We're mutant's. People are always going to be after us. They are always going to hate us, to want to use us and hurt us. Once we were on the up rise but now we're nothing again and they will use that against you always." He began to circle the boy, like the predator eyeing it's prey.

The blonde stood stock still, only his eye's moving, his breath caught harshly in his chest.

"There's a girl here and when she was so much younger than you those people tortured her. They beat her and kicked her down until she became what they wanted. If they could do that to a little girl, then think what they'll do to you because I'm telling you boy, they'll come for you. You say I haven't had anything after me, then that's good. We can start a fresh, and Blondie you're on my turf now. Once you start training up, you're being assigned to me."

"Ah'm not some solider you can order around, ah don't fight for no one." But Leeland's voice was unsure, like he didn't believe a word of his own thoughts so why believe the Wolverine now stalking him? Whom judging him before even seeing what he could really do? Because Leeland knew full well what he could achieve and he knew it wasn't much.

"Then fight for your self, and if you chose too, fight for the team. _They_ won't give you a choice Leeland."

"So ah'm supposed to choose now, before anything?"

"Best time to choose kid." The sound of his claws made their skin piercing entry and Leeland licked the sweat from his top lip, spun as to know what he was facing.

"And I'd pick quickly!" The lighting cut, plunging them into darkness.

xxx

The first thing Emma recalled walking down the corridor was the high-pitched scream. After several seconds she realised who it was and gave an almighty roll of her eyes. Honestly, was there no place she could leave that silly child for more than two second's without him causing himself some kind of mischief?

It was during her fast paced walk towards the Danger Room observation deck that she realised she might have been harbouring feelings for the boy. However, whatever maternal instinct she once had, had long since vanished. Vaguely she mused that he was more like small puppy. Every one wanted one until it grew too big and decided you were not the highest thing it's life any longer.

She had to correct herself. That was not a puppy. That really was a child.

Was she so afraid of giving unconditional love to a boy she barely knew? After all, she was right. She didn't carry him, give birth to him or even hold him in her arms.

A vision of a tiny three-year-old boy that had looked up at her with wonder and great green eye's invaded her thoughts.

Scowling, she pushed that to the back of her mind and hurried into the darkness of the room.

"What in the world-" The Danger room was engulfed in darkness but every few seconds, great orange orbs of pure electric would penetrate the darkness. It seeped into the dark corners, turning the scene inside into a strobe like fantasy.

xxx

Now Leeland was not sure where the power came from, but he knew it was his and that if he was going to survive the Danger Room, survive at all, he needed to know how to use it. Logan charged at him from all sides, using his claws to deflect the boy's only source of power.

Back stepping, he pushed his back against one of the walls, using the light source as a guide as to where his predator would attack next. The sweat trickled down his forehead, his heart hammed so hard that he felt the nauseas rush of blood pump furiously into his head. Boy, was he going to feel like shit when the Wolverine was done with him.

There! A flash of a body, a grunt and Leeland knew instinctively which side he was going to be attacked. Now his hearing was not great, but he used the constant beeping to his advantage, letting the silence be his guide. The dark surrounding's of the walls scared him more than a small gruff man and his claws of metal. Surely whatever was lurking in the Shadow's would be far worse to him the taste of metal in his lungs.

No. This was a school. That would never happen.

Would it?

A great "Snikt!" Sound erupted in front of him and Leeland panicked, throwing his only source of protection in a haphazard like manner. Watching in horror, the static bubble soared straight past its target and disappeared in the depths of the Danger room. Logan was upon him in minutes and the boy stumbled backwards, loosing his footing.

There was a soft thud and he landed on his behind, hand's smacking the ground behind him. But the flash of light stroked the darkness and Logan grunted, staggering forward and away from his target. The bubble had ricocheted off of the wall and hit him in the back of the head.

Grinning weakly, Leeland saw that as his chance and tried to scramble to his feet. But this was the Wolverine. _The Wolverine_. No scrawny little kid was going to get one up on him.

Scenting the air once, the man was straight on the boy's tail. With a leap to the air, he aimed his strike hoping to come crashing down upon the boy.

Stumbling, Leeland spun at the last second and gave a great gasp, the air in his lungs leaving him at one. Throwing his hands up, he waited for something to hit him, for the pain to throb through his already aching body.

It never came though.

Panting and terrified, Leeland peered up through his fingers and his heart gave a little skip. There, before his hands was one of his electric bubbles. What was peculiar though was how it was now no longer just a small tennis ball sized object but was growing and steadily engulfing him. Stranger still was that when Logan had punched the air with his extended claws, they had quite easily slipped through the telekinetic membrane of the bubble, but not his skin. His hand was transfixed out side and the Wolverine raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm. Just like Ichiki's armor. Only my claws will go through." Logan stepped backwards; titling his head to the side to observe the teenager still sprawled on the floor with the spitting bubble still trying to engulf him. Leeland swallowed the spit building up in his mouth and tried to sit up. The bubble moved with him and with an irritated frown he waved it away. It vanished at once, leaving them in the darkness.

There was a click and the whir of the lights engulfed the room. The boy shielded his eyes for a second before looking upwards toward Logan who was still observing him. "When did they come about?" He asked and Leeland shrugged, rolling his shoulder blades to sit up but he was sure his legs had given out. A hand appeared before him and he gave an appreciated nod as he was helped to his feet.

"Did…Didn't know ah could do that." He said in small voice, as Logan patted him on the back. "You and me both Blondie."

"So how come your claws didn't go through?"

"What am I? Know it all guy, that's Hank's department."

"So…yah didn't know you'd stop. Yah could've taken my eye out."

"You're being quite calm about it."

Leeland pursed his lips to the side but shrugged his shoulder's softly. "With the way thing's have been these last few weeks, my teacher killing me sound's like normality."

Logan smirked, a small spread of a smile on his usually harsh features. "Ain't gonna kill you kid, not unless you really piss me off. But you've got potential. I want you back here tomorrow at six am."

"Six!"

Logan grinned. "Like you were sleeping?"

Emma peered down into the Danger Room, watching as the boy limbered away whilst rubbing at his shoulder joints and muttering something about "Did you really have to turn the lights out, ah couldn't see shit."

The tiny show of power changed everything. There was something far greater to work with than just putting computers together and telling them to turn on and off. Of course, the boy had a long way to go before he could even think to master it. But what intrigued her more were the mental blocks stopping her from entering his mind. Not that she really needed to know what a seventeen-year-old boy was thinking; Sleep, Food, Video Games, School, Sex, Girls…Boys?

Same old, same old. On top of the world in the morning, depressed over lunchtime and angry in the evening - teenagers, when was the world going to learn to lock them all in a cupboard until they were twenty one?

Leeland made his way back to the higher levels of the school but he was still tempted to sneak around the lower basement. Something didn't feel right, surely they had found his Dad, he couldn't be that good at hiding. But it was still early and with that in mind he headed back up stairs.

It was when walking down the towards the boy's dormitory did he notice the small flash of white disappearing behind one of the corners. Quickly, he sped up his pace, watching as Emma vanished into her office, shutting the door behind her. There were several things he needed to ask her, the first was about his father and the second about those files she had on him. It was not that he hated the woman; she just didn't sit right with him. But he supposed just sometimes there were people you just didn't like and it couldn't be helped.

So he swallowed the impulsive comments he wanted to spill about her and plucked up some courage.

Knocking on the door took him some time but when he finally did it, he knew how silly it would be to up and run away. Besides, it wasn't as if there was anything to be scared of.

"What is it?" A voice called, clipped with what he could clearly hear as irritation. Leeland wrapped his fingers around the door and opened it, stepping into her office.

Emma looked upwards as she nursed a rather irritating little headache that had started to form behind her eyes. Sleep deprived and irritable she hardly had time for little chitchats. She would treat him just like any of the others.

"Leeland. What are you doing up at this ungodly hour?" Though she knew perfectly well he had been up longer, fighting in the danger room and the sweat on his clothes did very little to hide the training. He'd need a suit soon.

The boy scratched the back of his head before a scowl set in on his usually soft and distant features. "No sign of my Dad then?" He asked, his tone clipped like hers and he raised his eyes from the floor, watching as she settled her self into her desk chair.

"No. Your father is…how should I put it, hidden at the moment."

Leeland didn't reply but simply nodded his head, his lip's pursed as his eye's scanned the floor once again. It took him a moment or so to build up his confidence and to simply ask her what was running around in his mind like a frightened gazelle.

"Is that all Leeland? I have papers to grade and-"

"Why do yah have those files on me?" He asked, cutting across her and finally looking up at her. "Ah mean…they were about me, so why not tell me? Did you think ah couldn't handle it or summat 'cos ah'm not smart Ms. Frost, not book smart any way. Ah never got good grades and ah never really wanted them but…" He scowled. "Ah can take that can't ah? Or am ah not allowed the truth?"

Emma looked taken aback at first but she let her expression change, shift slightly as her eyes gazed at the small covered papers on her desk. Lying just underneath her Ethics papers was Leeland's brown file. Subject DB42, AKA Weapon 4.2. Her not so little secret that towered above her at six foot four with the look of a despondent toddler.

"What files?" She lied, testing the waters but it was icy cold like her name.

"Ah'm NOT stupid!" Leeland exclaimed. "Want me to recite it word for word because ah will! Or ask Doctor McCoy, 'e 'as a copy of them."

"You where in my office?"

"No."

Emma opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it. "Sit down boy, we have an awful lot to discuss."

xxx

Outside in the grounds of the Xavier estate a flash of pale blue erupted on the deserted playing field and something hit the ground with large thud and a grunt. The being lay there for several seconds, trying to remember how to breath and hoping with all his might that he had not left any body parts behind…this time.

Slowly the being staggered to his feet and then realised how far out in the open he was. Without a seconds thought he delved inside his back pack, pulled out a small crystal vile and uncorked it. The silvery substance inside was as vicious as treacle but tasted of nothing he wished to remember. Taking a deep breath and holding his nose, the person swallowed the potion and gagged as the taste spread out across his tongue.

If his taste bubs could talk he knew very well that they would be shrieking and hitting him. But it did what it was supposed to and the silver wove across his body, illuminating him from the inside before promptly making him vanish from sight.

**TBC~**


	15. Anything that happens, happens

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 22/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 15:** Anything That Happens, Happens.

There was much to discuss but little Emma wanted to reveal to the boy, especially her own warped connection to him. She would have preferred to keep it entirely to herself but now there was both Scott and Tony who knew. If she so wanted to, she could have quite easily have wiped both their minds of the event. But creating new memories was always tedious. Besides, it felt as if a little bit of weight had been eased from her heavily loaded shoulders.

"They came into my possession when we where trying to locate your father. I've had an associate and his company help track your father down and this…this is what they found on you. That is why I have them." She still wanted to know who had been in her office, but that could wait.

The boy shifted in his seat, his arms knotted tightly over the front of his chest. He did not interrupt her but simply listened, finally receiving some of the answers he had been longing for. Why spoil the moment?

"You were created in a New Mexico lab by a government run facility; Black Womb, using unknown genetic material from…from mutants we're yet to identify. Jonathon Williams is not your father and whoever he claimed to be your mother, wasn't." It was sharp and to the point and they both stared at each other with irksome irritation.

"He never claimed anyone was my mother." Leeland replied bitterly but Emma was not sure it was directed at her or his father. She wondered how long he could stand up for a man who drugged him and lied to him for the most of his short life. Not that McCorby was entirely to blame. She had, of course played her own part in the deception. It was not as if she was keeping her name out of it for Leeland's sake, she had pride in her self. And she would never let her self forget that.

"So my parents could be anybody?"

"Yes."

Leeland nodded his head, a sharp little thing that looked more like a twitch and he shifted uncomfortably in the seat.

"Thank you." He said after a few moments of contemplation.

"Pardon?" Emma asked, her facial features moving for the first time in ten minutes to that of wonder.

"For telling the truth. Ah don't wanna be lied to anymore. It's…It's easier for me to wrap my 'ead around this now." In the back of Leeland's mind he could not quite piece everything together. There was an awful lot missing, facts here and there that would not come clear to him for some time. But what he did have? A start, that's what.

Now he had a clean slate, sort of. In a sense, he was adopted and now there was a burning curiosity to who he really was. But if his real parents were even alive, he doubted they knew that he even existed. That gave him a tiny bit comfort; at least they didn't miss what they didn't know they had.

Emma was finding it more and more difficult to be in the same room as him, his face as unreadable as his mind.

"You're welcome." She said quietly and as an after thought she took the file from her pile of papers and handed it out to him. "It is yours after all."

The boy didn't react for a second until he gingerly took it and held it tightly in his lap. "It won't tell you anythin' about your parentage, but it's a start." Emma told him, and she wondered how long she could play this out. After all, she knew perfectly well who both his parents where but she couldn't tell him, not now. Neither of them were ready.

Leeland nodded his head again and muttered his thanks. Slowly he began to rise from his seat when Emma spoke once more.

"Black Womb is deserted Leeland, there's nothing there to find."

"Ah wasn't-"

"Leeland…" Emma stood up from her own seat and made her way around the desk, brushing her fingers against his shoulder with what she refused to believe was affection. "There's nothing there for you and certainly no answers."

"So ah should jus' give up? Never wonder what ah was meant for or…" Would his parents want to know him or would they cast him off as nothing more than stolen DNA. It was not his fault, was it?

Emma patted him on the arm. "Never stop wondering Leeland, or you'll simply stop. Now, go back to bed you look exhausted. Logan run's a mean session."

The boy's ears flushed, she knew he had been down in the sub basement. But he was grateful that she had left it at that and he started his slow wander back to his bedroom.

It wouldn't be so hard to find out which one the little darlings had been in her office, but now she had a migraine and a rather depleted looking stash of aspirin.

Sighing, she sat down behind her desk and felt her shoulders sag with weight. She was not the kind of woman to let this get on top of her, but it was slowly starting to wear her down. All of this was a bad idea and nothing good would come from it.

There was simply no time to sit and brood though as a knock came to her door. Before she even had time to tell them to go away, the door opened and Kitty stormed into the room followed by the entire fleet.

"I see the art of waiting after knocking has been forgotten." Emma spoke with barely a raise of her eyes. As she looked up though, her own hard gaze was met with Kitty's and she wondered if the young girl had always looked like that. Such a sour faced look. Perhaps the wind had slapped her and it had stayed that way.

Logan wasn't there, neither was her husband or Tony for that matter. Hank closed the door behind him, being the last one in after Kitty and Peter.

"Well?" she asked, rather perplexed. "What are you all standing-Ohh." And then it hit her. A wave of emotion flooded towards her with a fair amount of words added into the mix. A rather loud evil bitch comment simply radiated from kitty, but that was nothing new.

"It would insult your intelligence Emma if we acted nonchalant. We know who Leeland really is. And I must say that I didn't quite see that one coming." Beast cleared his throat slightly, an itch to clean his glasses crept over him but he kept his fidgeting to a minimum.

"How can you be so calm!" Kitty had kept it to herself the best she could but seeing Emma in front of her brought back just why she found her so unpleasant in the first place. She glanced at Beast and behind her to Peter who had said very little on the matter.

"I hardly see why it's any concern of yours."

"And I thought being on this team meant we didn't all start keeping secrets from each other." Kitty remarked but it did not quite gain the effect she had desired. Instead, Emma tried to stifle a laugh behind her hand but failed. Her eye's creased with laughter and she had to dab at her eyes. "This, from a student of the _great_ Charles Xavier. A man known for his secrets and lies. If anything, I learned from the best and he wasn't even my teacher."

"No Emma, your school killed your students-"

"How dare you-"

"Be quiet! The pair of you." Hank fairly growled at the pair of them, pinching the bridge of his nose. He shot a look at Kitty causing her to step backwards and look semi ashamed. If not for the others in the room, but for her self.

"We talk about this rationally like adults. Meeting room, ten minutes."

Fifteen minutes later saw the X-team and a de suited Tony Stark sat around the table in the war room. The air was so thick that Logan could have sliced through it if he wanted to.

The foundations of Xavier's were built on lies, or so it seemed. It was as if everyone was in it for themselves and they had forgotten what they where all really there for;

The children.

Though this time, it was only one child in question but Emma needed to start at the beginning. Only then could they really know the truth.

"First of all, I'm thrilled you all decided to tag along and listen to a private conversation." She stated with her hands resting upon the polished surface of the cold table.

"It wasn't that private." Kitty mumbled but fell silent after Hank cleared his throat.

"But now that you all know-" She continued, an octave higher as to drown out the brunette sitting across from her. "I'm going to make it quite perfectly clear that he is not to know." She looked up at each and every one of them, almost daring any of them to argue or contradict her. They didn't, she was glad.

"It's better that way."

It was uncomfortable, she didn't know what to say, couldn't find the right words.

"We've all done stuff." Scott spoke up. "Things we're not proud off, that we wish we could take back. We can't, that's why we regret it but what happens in the past stays there."

"So we forget it was ever mentioned. We're all in know but Leeland's not. It's cruel." Kitty shook her head with a scowl. She didn't want to appear petty or whiny, but unfortunately it was how she felt. If it was beneath her, she would have marched out of the room and told him right then but they were a team. A dysfunctional one at that, so she stayed put. Not for herself, certainly not for Emma Frost but for the team she had been apart of since she was thirteen.

"Yes." Scott replied and the room fell silent once again.

"I've done plenty of things I'm not proud off, and I didn't think this would be as hard as it is. I won't tell him and neither will any of you. I don't think I could face loosing another one." Emma said it with out a second thought but as soon as she did, she couldn't take it back. The room stirred, Kitty shifted and her expression softened.

"I lost children I'd pledged to teach. Xavier's was so uppity, so elite and closed off. Where else- who else was going to teach young mutants to use their gifts and defend themselves?" She looked up and a small smile played with the corner of her mouth. "They were killed; sentinels. But it feels like decades ago and I look back on my life and all I see is the same horrible pattern repeating itself. My school, Genosha, here. How many did we loose last year? How many are we going to loose next?"

"None if we can help it." Said Kitty.

"Oh but that's just it. We can't help it." Emma sighed and ran her hand through her hair, a headache still pounding behind her eyes. "He's here to be trained, like the others and he won't be treated any differently and for that, I suggest we lift red alert."

"But we still don't know what attacked the jet, never mind who put him in the hospital." Scott frowned, but he even he was getting restless with the children being shut in. They were harder to teach.

"I can put up extra security." Tony added. "I still want to question Williams, it'll be a good cover as to why I'm here." He suggested and the room agreed with a general murmur.

"Anything else?" Emma asked. "Or has everyone's burning curiosity and accusations been settled?"

"Yeah." Said Logan who had been rather quiet up to that point. "The kids training with me."

"Any particular reason?" Scott asked "I didn't think computers were your thing."

Logan shrugged. "They're not. Kid can shoot balls of electric from his hands…"

"He can?"

"Yeah, and the bastards hurt when they hit."

It was decided then. Logan would train Leeland and it would be a guarded secret that he was Emma's son. Scott was not all together happy about the boy's new developed power and Kitty wasn't happy about anything.

"One last thing." Said Peter, his silence as common as Emma's sarcasm. "If you are his mother, then his father…"

"Oh Peter. We're not going there. That's one secret you'll all appreciate."

xxx

The day's that followed happened to Leeland like a soft blur. He was very much aware of himself, who he was and how he fit into the big picture at the School of Xavier. What he was not so sure of was how he fit with other people. It never really bothered him before if he was "popular" or "liked". He rather enjoyed being on his own with his few close friends, which now he didn't have. Oh he had Victor, and the other boy's but he missed England, Brian and his other college friends.

Did they think about him, ask about him? It was as if he had dropped of the face of the UK and his new life was in a country he didn't quite understand. Oh their language was very nearly the same but a different county nonetheless. It felt as if America had turned around one day and said "we have to be different to England, so let's make everything work differently to them".

What he had found out straight away was how the light switches where backwards, very much like their driving and locks. In England he would flip the switch down to turn a light on and up for off. In the US, he found the opposite would occur. But it wasn't just that. He noticed, with his powers, that their electricity was booting out at double the strength for half the power. It was like they needed more energy to run something that would run on half in the UK but he kept that one too himself.

But most different thing of all had to be the chocolate.

Now, Leeland had a terrible sweet tooth but he couldn't stomach the murky brown slab that was labeled as the best chocolate in the world but tasted like the cardboard found in Christmas advent calendars. The watery stuff he used to try and feed next doors dog and was severely told off for it. Like a six year old knew it could kill them!

But what he _did_ like?

Well, he was still trying to come to terms with it all on his own and it felt as if there was not a soul he could tell. Not even Victor.

Whenever he would see him, his stomach would knot up so tightly that he thought he would pass out. It would ease up after a few minutes but the feeling still made blood rush to his cheeks, made him fidget nervously on the spot.

But did he want to admit it was a crush? Leeland wasn't sure. He had so many things running through his mind that he thought perhaps liking Victor should be at the bottom of his never ending list of…stuff!

There was all this business with his father, the Black Womb project and even his growing powers. Taking a liking to a boy he hardly knew was like being a teenager just woke up and kicked him. He didn't have time for it, yet he wanted it most off all.

"Ouff!" There was a rather audible thud as he tripped over his own feet, landing on his behind and smacking his head against the adjacent wall. With a scowl he grunted and tried to sit up and caught Logan's glance.

"You ain't trying hard enough Blondie."

It was the fifth day of his six am training sessions and they had made very little progress. Leeland was supposed to be trying to keep on his feet with the armoured ball of electric protecting him. Instead he kept flinching and letting his guard down.

"I AM!" Leeland replied with a shrill shriek, kicking his foot out at nothing. "It's not my fault it doesn't always work!"

"You're not battery operated kid, learn how to control it or don't."

"I…" Leeland gritted his teeth, brought his knee's up and rested his hands on them. "Ah've got a lot of stuff going on in my 'ead, all right! Ah wake up feelin' like crap, like my 'ead is about to cave in. Ah've gotta come down here, make like ah know what ah'm doin' when yah terrify the shit out of me. Then ah've got to retake classes I 'aven't done since ah was sixteen and try not to look like the slow kid, but ah'm not doing a very good job of it. Do you either remember algebra, 'cos that shit is hard."

"Are you going to whine all morning?"

"Yes."

"Hit the showers Lee." Logan sighed and shook his head before heading for the doors. "And whatever you've got on your mind, don't bring it too my training sessions."

"Oh ah'll just forget everything shall ah?" Leeland scrambled to his feet, his brow creased in frustration and his lip jutted out to one side. It was a toddler's sulk and not a very good one.

"It'd make training you a hell of a lot easier." Logan glanced over his shoulder and frowned before his features softened. "We'll try again in two days."

"Two?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow morning you sort out your head and whatever problem you have."

"It's more that just one problem, yah know?"

"Not it isn't." Said Logan flatly and Leeland was positive he saw him smirk before heading out of the Danger Room doors.

The boy stood in the middle of the room, his limbs aching and his head spinning of thoughts of one person. How he would flutter in and out of his head constantly. He needed to do something about it, and before Logan scalped him.

After showering he pulled on clothes that were not drenched in his sweat and made his way up towards the upper levels. However, walking down the corridors, he was aware of eyes on the back of his neck. It was a rather specific feeling, like two little holes burning into the back of his skin. With a shrug of his shoulders, he shook the feeling from himself and quickly made his way out of the basement. It was so entangled technology that he was surprised the walls didn't converse with him or the doors sigh when he walked through them.

Students were starting to wake up and there was a sizable number trying to move themselves around the kitchen. Noriko sat at the table spooning soggy cereal into her mouth, her head slumped on one arm as David poured over a new text book that looked as boring as the night was long.

As he made his way over to the fridge he noticed Victor telling Nicholas off over the smell of the smoking toaster. Leeland wasn't sure why but he decided to keep quiet, not make his presence known to the green mutant.

Noriko watched him with a raise of an eyebrow, wondering why he was being so secretive and attempting to make no noise whilst fiddling in the fridge.

"It isn't my fault it just stopped working!" The little boy yelled, waving his arms in the direction of the toaster.

"Well maybe if you didn't stick so much bread into it, it's only meant for two slices!"

"I did! I'm not stupid Victor…The fridge isn't working either you know." He scowled and crossed his arms over his chest with a despondent pout.

"I thought this tasted funny." Noriko murmured, pushing her luke warm cereal away from herself and leaning back in her seat.

"Does it feel warm in there, Lee?" She asked casually, trying to hide a smirk when the tall boy froze up inside the fridge before cleaning his throat and peering from behind it.

"Oh. I didn't see you there." Victor grinned brightly as the blonde shrugged his shoulders sheepishly before glancing back at the fridge. He frowned and closed the door, spreading one of his hand across the front of it. "Yeah." He murmured. "The powers on but…it feels wrong." He jutted his lips to the side, taking a piecing into his mouth as he wondered.

"And the toaster?" Nicholas asked.

Leeland tilted his head to the side and shuffled across the room, doing to the same with the toaster as he did with the fridge before nodding his head. "Yeah. Not the power settin' it needs urm…I, ah can't really explain it."

"Someone's draining the power?" David helped, barely raising his eyes from his book as Leeland nodded.

"Yeah, that's why your toast won't cook."

"See!" The little wolf exclaimed at Victor before he turned on the spot and grabbed a bag of cookies up from the side. "Looks like I'll have to resort to sugar seeing as how the milk is out as well." He threw Victor a haughty look, as it was the green mutants fault everything wasn't working the way it should do before storming out of the kitchen.

"Well good morning to you as well." Victor scowled before grabbing his juice up of the side and taking a rather violent group.

"So…" Julian appeared at the doorway, arching his eyebrow at the little whirl wind of brown that shot passed him before peering into the kitchen. "Any idea why the power is all…hey wire? I can't get my cell to work?"

"Hey Nori." Alani peered next to Julian, her hair damp and knotted, and a hair dryer in her hands. "Can I borrow your hair dryer, mine smoked out on me."

The eyes in the room travelled towards the blonde who went about his own business staring at each and everyone of them in turn. That was until he realised they where all staring at him, like he had personally destroyed all of their electrical goods.

"Don't look at me! Ah've been in the DR. Not my fault your power outage is runnin' at double the strength for 'alf the result."

"Huh?" Victor raised his juice towards his mouth and stared up at the blonde who suddenly shifted on the spot and scratched at the back of his neck.

"I uhh, ah gotta go." He murmured, unable to keep eye contact as he shuffled quickly out of the room.

"What was that all about?" Julian craned his neck to watch the receding form of Leeland as both Noriko and Alani groaned. The two girls shared a glance as the boy's went to work trying to get the toaster to work and not spit molten bits of bread and pop tarts.

"I'll go." Said Alani. "Maybe I can get him to fix this at the same time."

The red tattooed girl made her way down the corridor, running a hand through her chestnut hair and ruffling it so it looked a little more managed and less like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards. As she walked though, the lights flickered above her, illuminating a flashing path towards the boy who had sulked away.

"You know, if this wasn't a fairly new building I reckon they'd need the electricians back in." She stood in the doorway of the common room, one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around her useless hair appliance.

"Hmm?" Leeland looked up from his crumpled position on the sofa and glanced at the lights. "Oh, sorry." They returned to normal and he sighed, his head resting in his hands. "But it ain't me breaking the stuff. Least…Least ah don't think it is." He muttered the last bit, barely lifting his eye's as he spoke.

Truth be told, he didn't really know what was going on anymore. All the staff, apart from Logan, was acting strange around him. Like a little time bomb that was sat ticking away in the corner and they were all too scared to even look at it.

"I…Ah'm havin' a few problems trying to think about everything that's important an' stuff that…stuff that ah want to be important but it doesn't feel like it can be. You… yah get what ah mean?" He asked, looking up at a girl he barely knew and whose hair dryer he may or may not have broken.

The girl gave him a sheepish smile before sitting down next to him, patting his arm with a smile. "You're allowed to be a teenager Leeland, no one is stopping you."

Leeland made a noise at this and scowled as he sat back in the sofa, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. "That's just it, ah can't be a teenager!"

Alani rolled her eyes and copied him as she sat back in her seat. "Oh, like you're the only one who's got problems. We all want to be normal, we just have to work it around all of…this." She gestured with her out stretched arm before smiling with a tilt of her head.

"But…What if it doesn't work out. What if h-" He stopped himself with a grumble and a shake of his head. "It doesn't matter, sorry for whining at yah."

"You're not whining, you're being a boy. It's the same thing." She told him matter of factly. "You…" She turned to him, taking in his flustered and lightly harassed appearance. There was something about the boy the staff was not telling their students, but she decided it was none of her business and a smile broke out across her face.

"So…You and Victor?"

"Huh?" Leeland raised his head as if waking from a deep sleep. Then it looked as if the alarm had rudely gone off and his eyes went wide. "W-what…What about Victor?" He asked quickly, snarling his fingers in his hair a little too hard.

"Oh please, it's about as obvious as _me_ walking into the room." She fairly nearly laughed but kept it too herself, watching as Leeland's horror struck expression turned to panic.

"Is…Dammit, is it that….oh God." He asked, grabbing a fistful of his hair and hiding his head in his hands.

"Well…" She started kindly. "Not to Victor, I don't think."

"Thank God."

"But we all guessed.

"Dammit! It's…I, Ah haven't really, you know, come out to anyone yet." He said quietly and felt the heat rush up his neck and burn his nose. Now he couldn't bring himself to look at her and instead stayed in his fortress of hair and embarrassment.

"Oh. Well, it was kind of obvious."

"Really?" he quiet voice squeaked.

"Sort of. You're not like…uhh." She struggled with how to put it into words and instead raised her hands and moved them about in a camp little movement causing Leeland to laugh nervously. "But you're not like the other guys either." She smiled at him.

"Ah guess ah don't know how to go about it." He wanted to admit he liked Victor, but what if he didn't feel the same way. The look on his face made it quite clear what he was thinking and Alani gave a small sigh and a shrug of her shoulders.

"Like, what would I say to him? I hardly know him and then there's Paras."

"Ah." Alani started, shaking her head. "Look…Paras and Victor, it wasn't what you think."

"They-Ah thought they were like boyfriends or something?"

The girl smiled kindly at him. "Or something. Leeland, Paras was fifteen, shy and religious to boot. They were best friends."

"But ah thought…"

"Yeah we all thought that. And there was some truth behind it. They'd hold hands in front of Julian and irritate him. Not because he didn't like it, only because he couldn't get with the girl he wanted while they were flaunting something that wasn't really real."

"So what do ah do?"

"Leeland!" She exclaimed suddenly with a mighty sigh. "Your seventeen and dumb. Do something with him! We were taken off Red Alert days ago and you're still wearing clothes from the school. Go to the mall or something! Look, I'll come with if you want. My dad sent me money for a new laptop and besides… I need to get this fixed." She pawed at the hair dryer and smirked when Leeland held his hand out for it.

"Thanks. Ah'll see if ah can fix it." He mumbled quietly before smiling at her. Maybe doing something so care free wouldn't be so bad. After all, he was tired of being in the States and not seeing any of it.

"You do that, and I'll go ask Miss Pryde to drive us." She got to her feat and made it to the door before she peered over her shoulders with a smile playing in the corner of her mouth. "But _you've_ got to ask Victor." She grinned and headed down the corridor, leaving Leeland to stutter, panic stricken.

xxx

After walking back and forth in front of Victor's door for five minutes, Leeland realised he didn't have the courage to simply knock on it. A week ago he was sleeping in his bed, now he couldn't even look him in the eye, never mind talk to him.

Maybe he could just tell Alani that he didn't need new clothes. Yeah, and maybe he could spend the rest of time at Xavier's in more fetching shades of grey and their illusive X symbol. No, he needed a new wardrobe and he wondered if they sold backbones at the mall too.

Sighing, he shook his head and turned on the spot ready to simply give in when he heard Victor's door un click.

The green mutant stepped out with his coat zipped up to his neck. His trade mark shorts and sandals had been replaced by a pair of baggy jeans riding low around his waist and trainers that looked as if they had been through a war zone.

Leeland would call it comfy. His father would say the homeless looked better.

"Oh, there you are." The green mutant beamed, holding a long green scarf in his hands. "Alani said you were going to the mall, mind if I tag?" He asked and Leeland quickly shook his head.

"Cool. Erm, this is for you. It's getting cold and…and I didn't want you to get sick, here." The smaller mutant held out the scarf towards the blonde who smiled sheepishly and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Uhh, thanks." He frowned and kicked himself for not being more enthusiastic.

"Are you ok? You seem a bit spaced today." More spacey than he usually was but it was not something Victor liked to say about Leeland or even think it. Sure, he was a little quiet but he had a lot of things on his mind. Sometimes though, he wished he were a dammed mind reader.

"Ah'm fine." He finally managed to say and took the offered scarf. "Thanks." He smiled sheepishly and wrapped it around he neck, covering up his mouth in the process.

"If only they made one big enough for Santo."

"Yah could always use bed sheets, yah know, when 'e's not lookin'. Or sleepin'." The two shared a grin, Leeland's behind his safety of knitted wool as they made their way down to the front door.

Alani met them at the bottom of the stairs, wrapped up in so many layers that she resembled a marshmallow more than a girl. "Oh stop your snickering Borkowksi. It's cold out there you know. You guys ready, Miss Pryde said she'd meet us at the car."

"Wait." Leeland stopped on the bottom step and lowered the scarf from his mouth. "How am ah gonna pay for any of this?" He asked genuinely, he didn't have a penny to his name.

"How do you think Nicky pays for his clothes, and Nori and Josh. The school pays for you Lee." Victor patted his arm making the blondes stomach jump and his cheeks red.

"I…Ah can't take money from the school." He mumbled, watching as Victor rolled his eyes. "Yes you can." he said simply, taking the blondes arm and fairly frog marching him towards the door. "Now come on, I want to see what you look like in other than grey sweat pants and jumpers."

Twenty minutes later they were driving down the freeway towards the nearest mall with Kitty behind the wheel twitching every time she looked out of the re view mirror.

"Miss Pride?" Alani asked with an arch of her eyebrow before she frowned and craned her neck to look at Victor and Leeland, the former of who shrugged.

"Aren't we off red alert?"

"Yes." Said Kitty, blowing a stray strand of hair from her face and glancing at the rear view mirror, her eye's catching Leeland's. Quickly, she glanced away and smiled at the girl in the passenger seat. "But you can never be too careful."

With that said, Alani nodded and rummaged around in her bag and brought out a white digital watch that she strapped to her wrist. A button on the side was pressed and the air around her shimmered.

Leeland watched on with a peculiar expression that turned into bafflement. "W-what?"

The mutated tattoo's on her dark skin had vanished leaving her fairly normal looking.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught Victor rummaging in his coat pocket and he brought out a similar watch, a black one that he too strapped on.

Victor caught his look. "It's just…easier this way." He admitted with a small shrug, pressing the button that made the air shimmer around him.

The green skin vanished, replaced by peach covered in spacious dark freckles. Instead of his spike carapace he now had a short crop of dark hair that he tried to push out of his eyes much to the blondes amazement. But the boy smiled when he caught Victor's gaze, glad to see his eye's where still a dark startling shade of green.

Kitty sighed from behind the wheel and gave a small shake of her head. "Guys, I told you, you didn't have to wear those."

"Yeah but, we'd rather not be walking targets." Alani replied and Victor gave a nod of his head. "Besides, I'm too fabulous to show off to just any one." The green mutant said wriggling in his seat and wiggling his fingers over his body. The girls rolled their eyes were as Leeland tried not to let out a snort of laughter.

Twenty minutes later they were walking around one of the largest malls in the town of North Salem. Leeland had never been very good at geography and had to point out, quietly of course, that he still had no clue where they were.

"Well you know America is split up into fifty states, right?"

Leeland nodded. "And New York is one of the states? Well, the state is then dived up again and the school falls in Westchester, which is a county. Then within the county are towns, so North Salem."

"Oh." Leeland frowned, trying to wrap his head around it. However, he did bite his tongue so he didn't admit that his view of New York was the city with the park and big green lady from France.

The British boy had never been to a mall before and he marveled at the size of it, the noise of the people, the busyness of everything and everyone. He looked tall and out of place, staring with bewilderment and wonder. The people, the way they spoke, all of it mingled in and out of his head like a stream of incoherent beeps and bleeps.

The scent of coffee and fast food floated down from the food court, enticing passer-by's and caffeine addicts of all kinds. Electricity thrummed through the walls and floors and the boy stood in the centre of it all, feeling every single watt and voltage flood his body and alert his mind.

"He's a bit…odd." Alani frowned as she tried to find the right word but odd didn't quite cover it. It wasn't meant to be a cruel comment but watching a full grown boy stand with his hands out, palms facing the ground and his eye's closed, in the middle of a busy shopping centre was certainly peculiar.

Victor shook his head and moved towards Leeland, poking him in the side. The blonde opened his eyes as if breaking from a trance or a deep sleep. Serenity on his features was quickly replaced with embarrassment at being caught doing what he was. He couldn't help it and he mused that it looked far more perverted than it was.

"Come on dreamer, let's find you some new threads." He grinned and watched as Leeland snorted. "Threads? Where're yah from like, the ghetto?" The blond laughed when Victor prodded him again. "I think you'll find I'm from the hood." They both began to wander away from Alani and their teacher, smirking at each other.

"Vict…-BOYS!" She called over the rabble of customers.

"They'll be fine Miss Pryde. Come on, you can help me find a new computer!" The Hawaiian girl beamed and hooked her arm around Kitty's, dragging her in the opposite direction.

"Alani? What are you up too?" Kitty dared to ask, a smile working into the corner of her mouth.

"What makes you think I'm up too anything Miss Pryde? The boy's don't want us tagging along, that's all."

"And why not?"

"Oh." Alani said quietly with a wave of her spare hand, looking for the right word to use. "They're not really…girl people." She glanced up at Miss Pryde who frowned at her. Then the phrase hit her and her expression turned from that of confused to mildly bemused.

"Oh..OH. Let's find you a computer. Mac Or PC?"

xxx

"Victor? Vic do yah know where we're going?" Leeland asked five minutes later as they wandered through one of the sections of the shopping complex.

"Sure. There's a really cool clothing place just up ahead and it's dirt cheap."

"Well that's good 'cos…" And the blonde pulled his empty pockets inside out and shrugged his shoulders with a grin. The other boy simply rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Good job I've got your money them, hmm, wonder boy. Which reminds me, have you thought of a code name yet?" He asked as they made their way past a toyshop that sold bears that had to be stuffed and made up in store.

The sounds of giggling and screaming children filled the blondes head for a moment and he swatted around his hair, as if batting away an irksome fly. "I uhm, urr. No. Not really, but wonder boy?" He asked.

"It's a working title." The familiar eyes on a strangers face grinned up at him and Leeland licked out over his lips and sheepishly ran his hands through his untamed, un-brushed scarecrow hair.

Twenty minutes later had Leeland with his arms full of jeans, cut off cargo pants, t-shirt in all colours and a number of hooded sweatshirts. The store was cheap but stylish and it was apparent that Victor was having more fun than the blonde was. With all his sandals, shorts and beads Leeland didn't think of him as fashion aware, but then again he didn't have a clue when it came to that department. He'd wear the same clothes for a week if he didn't spill stuff down it or sweat in it.

As he leaned back on a wall for a breather, he let a smile linger in the corner of his mouth as he watched the green mutant decide whether yellow or blue would suit the blonde better.

When Victor looked up, his happy contented smile shifted a bit as he peered at Leeland, his tired eye's and slumped position against the wall making him concerned. "Are…is this boring?" He asked but Leeland quickly shook his head.

"Not at all. Jus' tired."

"We don't call his training sessions 'Logan's Run' for nothing. Apart from Miss Frost, he runs the hardest classes and the two of them together is like mincing your muscles through a blender. It's funny though, your power setting doesn't really fit with Mr. Logan's trainings."

Leeland shifted sheepishly and glanced around the shop. They were in a rather deserted bit between the shelves of t-shirts and the dressing rooms. Looking over his shoulder, he spotted an empty booth and gestured towards it.

It was a tight spot, the pair of them almost pushed up together. Leeland's clothes deposited behind him on the chair were also not helping the space problem.

With them both pressed up so close together, Leeland realised that there was only a few inches between them. His heart raced inside his chest, hammered against his rib cage and he hoped to God they couldn't get any closer.

…There was a tiny voice in the back of his mind that hoped they _would_ get closer.

"I…look, promise me yah won't tell any one. I-I'm trying t'keep this quiet."

Victor nodded his head eagerly; a very serious look on a face Leeland didn't know but trusted non-the less.

"Ok, well…Yah know the other week the triplets dragged me off?" And he paused as Victor nodded his head again, wrapping his arms around his own chest. When his fist's rubbed against his chest, the blonde resisted the urge to shudder and melt all at the same time.

"Urh…Yeah they…Any way. We did this weird hypno out of body experience crap an' then this appeared." And from his up turned hand, a swirling ball of electricity that shimmered with the consistency of a soap bubble appeared. It's inside's flickered like a mini storm as the out side sparked silently.

"Whoa." Victor's eyes grew wide, his face illuminated a bright pink radiating from the bubble. "Is it…uhh, is it always pink?" He asked and Leeland felt his face flush with blood, his heart beating so hard that he was sure Victor could hear it.

"…No." He said quietly. Why was it pink! It had never been _pink_ before. Orange, green, blue and red when he was extremely pissed off but he had never been so nervous in all his life. It felt as if every nerve ending was aware of Victor's presence, all standing to attention just for him. Goose flesh pimpled his arms and he licked out over his lips nervously. "It's…It's supposed to be blue." He said quietly.

"Maybe they change with your mood?" Victor offered kindly and then boy quickly nodded his head. But how did he explain that the colour now reflected what he was feeling for Victor. It was embarrassing and nothing he was going to act upon. He was in the States to learn how to use his dammed powers and figure out who the hell he was.

But at seventeen year's old, he didn't have a clue who he wanted to be never mind who he actually was.

"So what can they do?"

"Oh. They hurt when ah throw them at people." He said lamely, not really able to explain them. "And if they get really big, it's like armour that no one can get through."

Victor thought back to Beast's science lesson, that mutations were perhaps a conscious decision. He didn't want to be seen so he gained the ability to camouflage. Leeland wanted to be safe? No. No it was more than that but he couldn't quite pin point it.

"You know what this means, right?" Victor asked and Leeland shook his head. "You're not just a controller any more, you're a blaster. I think you'd make team in no time."

"Ah don't wanna make the team." Leeland mumbled with a small scowl, sending the bubble away with a small pop. Victor's face fell into sad lines that he covered up with a shrug.

"Whatever." He replied and he resisted the urge to smirk when Leeland's face fell into sad little shocked lines. It was like watching a puppy whose chow had been taken away.

"I…Ah didn't mean it like that! I wanna know what ah'm doing with this, with my self before ah can even think about being stuck on a team. There ain't no point being all suited and booted with your mind on everything else."

Victor stifled a giggle behind his hand. "Have you see the X-men lately? They've always got stuff on their mind. Lee, you'll fit right in." The usually green mutant unwound his arms from his chest and brushed his fingers reassuringly on Leeland's arms.

They stared at each other for several moments, neither saying a word as the blush in Leeland's cheeks started to cover the rest of his face.

With a cough, he pulled backwards from the small space they occupied and mumbled something about Alani and expensive computers.

"Yeah." Said Victor, shaking his head with a small frown before a smile curled on his mouth. "We better pay for this stuff and then rescue Miss Pryde or Alani will bleed her dad's bank account dry."

Victor took the clothes to be paid for as Leeland muttered something about tying his shoe ace. In reality, blood hadn't just rushed to his face and he wondered why he hadn't just passed out. After rearranging himself he took a deep breath and joined the boy that made his stomach tight and fluttery every time he spoke.

**TBC~**


	16. Now concentrate!

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 23/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 16:** There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Now concentrate!

Families make us what we are. They are our past, our present and our future; they define us, they identify us. And, as we all know from personal experience, they are hugely complicated and a pain in the arse.

As it was, they were holding Leeland's father down in the prison cells located at the bottom of the sub basements. It was to ensure that if there were an escape, it wouldn't be as easy as slipping out an open window.

The cells were made up of reinforced _Perspex_ glass and power dampers were aligned at the top and the bottom of the structure. Not that they were doing any good in Jonathans cell. Everything he knew of he was taught or he gained the knowledge himself. There were no optical blasts embedded into his eyes or claws in his bones to kill his enemy's.

His bare hands and an impressive array of artillery were his weapons and now he was rather powerless. Not that he really minded because somewhere above him was the little boy he had raised and loved. Watched over, seen him turn from a bright eyed baby to a young man who wasn't going to let anything stop him in achieving his goals. And it had surprised him; the life of an artist. Drawing, painting, his music. A sure cry from the life Jonathon had chosen for himself. It had proved to the man that the boy was not just a thing made from combined DNA, left to fester and merge into a living-breathing weapon. Leeland was a quiet little daydreamer, who wouldn't hurt a fly and cried when pet fish died.

A smile made it's way onto the old man's face. He loved that kid.

The door to the prison room opened and white heeled boots clicked against the metal floor. Peering upwards, his eye's greeted Emma's pale blue ones and he gave a small roll of his shoulders. The camp bed he was sat upon was far from luxury but it was not the worst thing he had ever slept on.

"Emma." He started. "What am I doing in here?" He sounded tired, as if he really needed to ask the question.

The blonde woman stood with her hands on her hips, an unreadable expression on her face. "It's safer for everyone this way."

"Leeland doesn't know I'm down here?"

"Of course not. Arm's like sticks but I bet he would have broken down the door just to get in here." It sounded almost like a compliment but then Jonathan remembered that this was Emma Frost and that was about as likely as cat striking oil.

"He knows Jonathan. He found out." A silence rang through the air like a deafening bell but the man only frowned in response. "About you?"

"Oh good lord no. Unfortunately that wasn't one thing I could keep from the rest of the X-men. It's all about getting everything out in the open with them. No, he knows about Black Womb, and that it was you who rescued him from there. Though I can't say he's impressed about you keeping him in the dark."

"If you remember correctly Emma, it was you who suggested that that would be better for everyone."

"I didn't say drug him!" Her voice raised a notch higher than she would have liked but she took a calming breath and closed her eyes for a second.

"What else would you have me do, Emma? I was one man raising a mutant child whose powers were there from day one. It was the 80's, there were no support groups or schools like this."

"I offered him a place at the academy."

"And look how well that turned out for your students, your Hellions!"

It was true. Emma had indeed offered Leeland a place at the Massachusetts academy, well; she had asked his father at any rate. It really wasn't a decision a three year old could make. It was the first time she had seen him, a pale eyed little toddler who sat at a brightly coloured table colouring while Daddy and the nice lady talked. It was a very civilised meeting…and she had wanted to take Leeland home.

Emma drew her lips into a tight thin line. It was true; the academy had done nothing for her students except kill them.

"So adamant that he's nothing to do with you, aren't you Emma? You gave him to me to look after and I did my best."

"You didn't try hard enough." Came her quiet little retort.

"And where oh mighty X-man, were you, hmm? You weren't there when he learned to talk, to walk and every time he fell down and scraped his knees. I picked him up, I brushed him down and told him everything was fine. Just me." It took all the strength he had not to hit the glass in front of him. Instead, he balled his hands into fists and pressed them hard into his thighs to control his anger.

"I'm so sorry he didn't turn out the way you wanted Frost, full of your perfection and arrogance but I did my best." He looked up at those stark blue eye's, the irritated face of Ms. Frost and was reminded of when he would tell Leeland no. "Now then, enough about my parenting skills. Why am I here?"

Emma's face turned from irritation to that of boredom as she crossed her arms over her chest. "For the protection of my students."

"Cry me another one Frost."

"You're a dangerous man."

"I don't kill children."

A small smirk spread across Emma's mouth and she shook her head. "No, but I don't think one of them would have qualms about hurting you. Leeland knows everything and you're the last man he wants to see."

"So that's why you're keeping us apart. Please Emma, tell me you're not feeling compassionate for once?" The man asked with a shake of his head, trying hard not to sneer. "He's got a right to be angry at me, I'll take that. I even deserve it. But you…" He shook his head again and sat back, his back pressed up against the metallic wall behind him and his arms crossed over his chest. "You have no right to stand there and judge me. So I'll play your little game Emma. I'll answer all of Tony Stark's questions, hell I'll even be nice to you but don't act like a parent when you're eighteen years too late."

She left with out a witty retort or a snide comeback. She simply left, her boots stomping madly on the ground as she tried to control her anger and frustration. It took everything within her not to break the plastic prison down and yank him out by his jumper. Angry because it hurt, angry because he was right. All her life she had tried to block everyone out because no one was bothered about little Emma Grace Frost. Her sister's tried to kill her, her father drove her insane and there simply wasn't a thing she could do to help her mother and her brother. Drugged, incarcerated; good as dead.

There was no one that meant anything to her. Shaw was simply her ticket away from poverty and Scott…Oh Scott. It was true, she loved him dearly and as deeply as she could but she stole him from another woman, Jean, and he had never been hers in the first place.

Leeland _was_ hers.

And she realised she had made a terrible mistake in letting Jonathon take him away.

As she walked down the corridor, the lights up above began to flicker on and off. It sent her into darkness more than once and a frown creased her glassy brow. If it wasn't one thing or another she had to deal with, it was something as trivial as sorting out the generator.

She found Hank a few minutes later also surveying the flickering lights, the non-responsive machines. Standing in the doorway of his lab, she watched the room silently as her thoughts ticked away.

"Is someone going to ring the electric company or am I going to have to do everything myself?" She asked, clearing her throat when it was apparent that Hank had not noticed her. Of course he had noticed her, she was rather hard to ignore.

"It's nothing they could fix or want to fix Emma. It's the generator we have under Cerebro." Crossing the room, he tapped a separate monitor with his finger and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Then fix it, this static is doing nothing for my hair."

"I can't." Hank replied with a bored tone, glancing over his shoulder towards the platinum blonde. "Where's Leeland?" He asked but Emma shrugged her shoulders. "Why?"

"Because the generator is giving out the same readings his own powers do." Hank turned with a small unamused expression, more bemused by the coincidence if anything.

"Fantastic." Emma replied. "One more thing to add to my never ending list of…stuff." She rubbed at one of her eyes, wondering why on Earth she had got out of bed that morning.

"_Stuff_?" Asked Hank. "Why Emma, I do believe words are starting to fail you."

Emma could not reply to that, only scowl and try to regain the dignity she had just lost. "What do you mean the readings are the same?" She swiftly changed the subject and came further into the room. Then the lights flicked off, plunging them in darkness for several seconds before booting back up again.

They turned their attention to the screen the Doctor was in front of, watching as it sprang back to life thanks to its auto save system. There was nothing more annoying than rebooting after a power outage.

"This…" Hank started, pulling open a blueprint file with a 3D representation of the room underneath Cerebro. "…Is the back up generator. When we re built the sub basements and integrated Shi'ar technology, Forge created this. Cut the electric bill in half by using off world power and it helps power everything the electric company doesn't really want to supply." It was an impressive sized cylinder, something Emma had seen merely once before but never really asked about it. There wasn't much to tell.

"So it's malfunctioning?"

"Yes and no. Scan's say it's working perfectly, but there's something interrupting its frequency. It's like something or someone is trying to compete with it."

Emma frowned and Hank gave an open palmed shrug. "If he can summon nanobots into form without realising, and put computers together without knowing then it's possible he's doing this as well."

"But why try and compete with it? He doesn't seem the red blooded male type." No, thought Emma. She pictured Halloween and him wanting to be a fairy.

"It's subconscious Emma. Who knows what he's thinking. We better get him down here soon or-" A mighty bang echoed from behind them and the pair turned quickly to watch as a impressive looking piece of computer equipment erupted into smoke. "Well before any more of that happens."

xxx

The two boys were yet to find either Miss Pryde or Alani, even after checking and re-checking the computer store.

"How come yah like guys?" Leeland asked without thinking, staring down over the barriers that showed them the lower level all the other happy little mall goers. Giving a slight tilt of his head, a thoughtful expression passed Victor's face before he shrugged. "They're cleaner." He said with a sniff, not being very serious with his reply.

The pair of them resumed their silent people watching, taking in the sights of "normal" people. Those who didn't have to get up at 4am because of training sessions or wondering if a fellow class mate would accidentally burn their home down with his face. There was a small group of boy's roughly their own age, the kind that Leeland would pass in the streets back home and think nothing more of them. They were teasing two young girls who thought that giggling back and encouraging them was a rather attractive trait.

"You're kidding right?" Asked Leeland, his eyes never leaving the ground below him. "A've been wearing these socks for a week now. 'Think they could be 'bout ready to walk." He scrunched his toes up inside his trainers and felt the grit against his skin.

Victor looked up at him with a slightly horrified expression. "Geeze Lee…" He gave a shake of his head, unsure of a come back or if it even needed one. Short of "That's disgusting", he couldn't think of anything constructive to say about dirty socks.

Leeland only laughed. "Can't help it. Ain't like there's a law that say's all gay guy's have to smell like roses and your grandma's baking."

"Ahah…" Victor grinned, a little nod of his head. "So the truth is revealed." He tried hard to conceal his laughter as Leeland turned a horror struck face towards him and began to stutter.

"It's...er, I mean-"

"Leeland, relax. It's no big deal and besides; it's a little obvious."

"Why does everyone keep saying that!" Honestly, the notion was ridiculous. Leeland believed that he had never been obvious in his life. But that was self defense rising its great armored head. He turned to look at Victor with a scowl, his face softening out of sheer embarrassment before he mumbled something incoherent and peered back down at the rabble of shoppers.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way, Leeland. Really, no one's bothered it's just-"

"It's just no one else business!" The words left his mouth before he had time to calm himself down. "I'm not some prancing fairy. Ah Like boy's is all. Why should ah 'ave to change to fit some stupid stereotype." The blonde gave a great huff and pushed away from the barrier, only to press his back up against it with a scowl. With his arm's crossed over his ches the chewed almost obsessively on his lip.

"Well you're certainly a drama queen." Victor couldn't hide the smirk in his voice anymore than Leeland could hide his scowl. The usually green mutant turned with a tilt of his head and an arch of his eyebrow. "Am I a 'prancing fairy'?" He asked to which Leeland blinked several times and gave a sheepish shake of his head.

"No one's judging you. You don't have to suddenly become something you're not." Victor shrugged his shoulders and twirled one of the shopping bags in his hands. "So I'm good at picking out clothes. I can still kick Santo's ass and play a mean streak of basketball. And you can still wear week old socks and look like a scarecrow dragged through a hedge backwards."

Leeland timidly put a hand near his hair in a lame attempt to try and flatten it. "But…but ah don't even know who I am."

"Neither do any of us, that's the whole point of growing up." Victor gave a small laugh before grabbing up the blondes hand that was still pulling on his hair. "Come on wonder boy, we can work on your identity dilemma when we've eaten." He turned on the spot and gently wrapped his fingers around the other boy's wrist and pulled him along. The blonde followed but he felt more like a stumbling toddler or a besotted puppy.

xxx

Being psychic had its advantages. Being able to read mind's was a bonus but it was also a time saver. After a quick fire message to her students and teammates, she found out where the boy was. A part of her was a bit weary that it was Kitty who had offered to chaperone the three students but she reassured herself that Kitty would keep her promise. If not, then Kitty would be spending the rest of her life believing she was an actual cat, whiskers and all. They could get her a little collar with a bell.

_Kitty it's Emma_

The brunette woman almost jumped out of her skin before frowning and placing the straw of her drink back to her mouth.

Alani watched in confusion as her talkative teacher suddenly turned silent, as if she was thinking just that little bit too hard. Then her expression changed, as if she was having a conversation and the girl went back to her food. It had taken her a good few weeks to get used to psychic messages being broadcasted directly into her head. Still, it saved more on time and paper than an actual notice board.

"We need to find the boys." Said kitty, gathering up their food court trays. She was calm and collected but there was urgency to the way she spoke.

"Is something wrong?" The girl asked, clutching her new packaged laptop to her chest as she peered around their area to make sure they hadn't left anything.

"Not wrong, exactly." Kitty explained about the generator and the infrequency's with the power supply. It wasn't every day she had a chance to slip away from the school and to just be her self. It seemed today was not going to be one of those days.

"So it was Leeland?" Questioned the girl with an arch of her eyebrow but Kitty frowned at her.

"We don't know that yet. He might not even realise he's doing it." The teacher replied carefully, but Emma's voice had sounded urgent and more high-strung than usual. As much as they disliked each other, Kitty knew that Frost simply was _not _high strung. She was actually very calm and collected. It annoyed Kitty to no end to realise that someone she was not fond off actually had attributes that could make her a decent person. The flaw with Emma's personally was that she was cold and shut away. All her anger and hurt was hidden behind sarcasm and witty retorts. Strange how Kitty knew so much about a person she was not interested in but she supposed that was what being a team member was all about. That, and trying not to punch her.

"So if Leeland isn't the one making the electric haywire, then why are we walking so fast?"

Kitty stopped suddenly and looked over shoulder at the girl who wasn't that much shorter than her. Giving her a weak smile she held her hands out for the laptop clutched in the young mutant's hand.

"Call Victor, tell him to meet us by the car but don't him why."

"But he'll want to know why."

"Alani, please!" Kitty tried to keep the whine out of her voice as she balanced the boxed computer on her hip and her student gave a sigh.

The boy's were in the pet shop on the ground floor, watching tropical fish zoom about their glass tank in a tiny formation. Leeland grinned, desperately trying not to put his hand flat out against the glass like a small child. They where electric blue guppy's, or that was what the little plaque next to their tank read.

"Central America to Brazil, although wild populations have established elsewhere…." Victor read the little piece of information underneath the species name and looked back at the tank of shimmering blue-green fish. "Doesn't exactly tell you what you want to know, does it?"

"The males are longer than the females, yah can see which one's are which. Plus, the guys have more colourful fin's." Leeland shrugged his shoulders and turned to Victor, his cheeks turning red before he glanced back at the tank. "…Ah kept fish." He muttered quietly. "We had the guppy's years ago. Got koi carp now, they live in the pond outside an' Dad got me a gold fish for my room." He missed that stupid fish and how it would shout at him on a morning to feed him, almost attacking the glass.

"I always wanted a puppy." Said Victor cheerfully. "Dad said no. Puppy's turn into dogs."

"That was his reason for not getting a dog?" Leeland asked whilst straightening up and casting the guppy's one last forlorn look.

"Yup. That, and we just got a new carpet." He smirked and then frowned. A small buzzing noise followed by a tinkering of bells rang out and the usually green mutant began to frisk himself.

"Where on Ear-Ahhha!" He quickly pulled his phone from inside his jacket pocked and fumbled to accept the call. "You rang?"

"Hey Vic, we're heading back to the car. We're needed back home."

"Why, what's wrong?" Victor's playful expression vanished in an instant, replaced with a look he gained during training.

"Miss Pryde says the electrics still not right, that it has something do with Leeland. But Victor, don't tell him that!" The girl added quickly, her voice quiet on her end of the phone line.

"How come?"

"I don't know, Miss Pryde say's not to. So don't."

Victor resisted the urge to raise his eyes towards the tall blonde next to him who was watching his every little move.

"What's happenin'?" Leeland asked but Victor gave a small wave of his hand.

"Ok, we'll meet you at the car, bye." He clicked his phone off and put it back in his pocket and continued like normal. "Wish we could stay and watch fish all day, it's riveting…really… but we need to head back to school."

"It's Saturday." Leeland frowned as they began to make their way from the pet store. "What could we possibly need to do at school."

"Dunno." Said Victor with a shrug. "A forgotten bit of homework?" He tried to be as vague as he could, which was hard when he couldn't think of a thing to lie to Leeland about. That, and he didn't want to lie to the blonde.

Leeland frowned. "It's…it's about me, isn't it?" He asked, a sad little note in his voice causing Victor to stop in his tracks and peer over his shoulder. The blondes freckled face had fallen into sad line, his lips pursed to the side as he tried to smile through it. Pressing his own lips into thin lines, Victor gave a little nod of his head.

"Ah swear I ain't done out Vic!" He tried hard to defend himself but it came out whinny and pathetic, like a little child trying to squirm his way out of trouble. Leeland didn't want to admit that that was what he was trying to do, but he couldn't for the life him figure out what it was that he had done wrong.

"And I believe you." Victor was not sure what made him trust the blonde so much. It didn't seem that there was a bad bone in his body. Of course there was, no one was perfect. Perfect people were boring. There was just something about the way Leeland would try to prove his innocence by simply whining about it with words that did not quite make a complete sentence.

He knew his own accent wasn't perfect, and it was deep for his age. But it was like Leeland spoke another language all together and he found himself straining his ear to understand him sometimes. That was one of the thing's he liked about Leeland and how frustrated he would look when he knew no one could quite understand him.

"Come on. The sooner we get home, the quicker we can sort all of this out and you can tell them straight up that you have nothing to do with it." He smiled, tried to look positive but he had a feeling that the other boy had seen right through him.

"It's nice of you't say you believe me Vic, really, but…" Leeland trailed off with a soft shrug of his shoulder's.

"Leeland, smile or I'll make you smile." Victor warned with a playful smirk of his own. It caused Leeland to glance upwards, his pale hair shielding his eye's before a smile crossed his own lips. A part of him was tempted not to smile, just to see what his friend would do.

xxx

Tony Stark and various S.H.I.E.L.D agents had made their presence known in the mansion. They had been surveying the building with the staff, holding blue prints for defenses and talking of things that children should not eavesdrop into.

Noriko frowned as an elbow was dug into her chest and she rammed her own arm back. The sound of a winded Julian made her smirk before she tried to peer back around the corner.

"I don't trust them. It seems…odd." The idea that the school needed more defenses didn't throw the students. Of course they needed more protection, there was so few of them left. A part of her felt like an animal about to go extinct. What ever would they suggest next, breeding programs?

Of course, she knew that had been mentioned in passing but they were human beings to an extent, it didn't quite work like that.

"It all seems odd." Whispered Julian, scowling at the back of her head, as he tried to regain his composure. They weren't very good spy's, they knew that and his eye's glanced upwards. Laura and Nicholas had hidden themselves up on the roof, their hearing better than any of the other students.

"But Lee's not the first mutant since M-day, right? So all this seems a bit-hmm?"

"Over the top?" Offered Nori and Julian gave a soft shrug with one of his shoulders. "They're always hiding thing's from us. Maybe it's to do with the electricity. Laura did over hear Miss Frost talking about the generator."

Julian sighed, bored of playing spy now and leaned back against the wall. "Look, as soon as you find out what's going on come and tell me." He turned from his spot and began to make his way towards the side door.

"What! You were the one who suggested we sneak around like this, and you got Laura and Nicky to go up to the roof!" Noriko scowled, hurrying to catch up with the boy.

"Oh come on! It's freezing out here, and I'm starving! Laura's tough, she'll be fine."

"And Nicky?"

"Kid's covered in fur. It's not as if he's going to freeze."

Sometimes, Noriko wanted to hit Julian. Hit him so hard that he could taste the static build up in her gauntlets. But instead she simply huffed and shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets.

As they made their way back into the building though, something caught her eye causing her to turn and peer at the forest. It looked as if-no, no she was seeing things and gave a small shake of her bottle blue hair.

"Are you coming or what?" Julian called from the doorway, opening it wide open so all the heat escaped.

"To conserve energy, yes." The girl grumbled and hurried her feet, glancing one last time at the forest.

The youth hidden behind one of the tree's swallowed the spit that had built up in his mouth, cringing at the way it felt sliding down his throat. He would have much rather spat it out on the ground. Yet he was scared to move, just in case anyone had seen him. Even worse, if they had started to make their way towards the forest's edge.

With a sigh of relief, he watched with dark blue eye's as the girl with hair like the sky went into the building with the boy. It would really have messed up his plan's if he was caught right then.

Placing his left hand flat against his chest, he raised his right hand and chanted "choo-ge-ee" in a soft tone. At once his dark blue eye's lit up like a morning sky and with a flash, he was gone.

Something was in the air. Laura scented static on the wind and wrinkled her nose before shaking her head. That kind of scent always made her want to sneeze, but so far it had simply distracted her from her task.

She sat with her back pressed up against one of the turrets situated upon the roof, her wrist resting over a raised knee and her head slightly turned down at one side.

Sat across from her, Nicholas gave an almighty groan and hid his head in the top of his knees. "I'm bored!" He mumbled through the fabric of his jeans. "This is boring." He added when Laura neither replied of acknowledged him. With a grunt, he kicked his leg outwards and the small pile of autumn leaves that had gathered floated upwards before settling on the child's head.

"You won't be able to hear anything if you don't be quiet." Laura whispered and the boy reluctantly fell quiet with a small scowl.

Down below them, Ms. Frost and Tony Stark conversed quietly over a set of blue prints the Iron Man had in his hands. He looked relatively normal in his tailored Italian suit, complete with black leather gloves and a cashmere scarf wrapped around his neck to ward off the bitter chill. It was certainly a more relaxed position but the conversation was far from pleasant.

"McCorby's to be charged in connection with the deaths of several high up's, there's nothing I can do about that. But I've pulled as many strings as I can, the boy's not going to mentioned."

"Good." Was Emma's only reply, her thoughts far away. A part of her felt guilty for doing this to both Jonathon and his son but once she brought Tony into the picture, she knew it was almost out of her hands.

"Eighteen year's. Some might say it's a bit long to bring someone to justice, hmm." Emma voiced her opinion but Tony didn't respond causing her to turn with a soft raise an eyebrow. It had not occurred to the woman that she could have been wrong, that the man she had entrusted with her child was not as innocent as he protested.

"The thing is Emma…" Tony gave a small sigh, turning his gaze towards the blondes. "The last murder was three year's ago. Which mean's he didn't stop his mercenary business just because he had Leeland."

The news hit Emma like a slap in the face.

"Murder!" Nicholas exclaimed, the expression on his face made him seem more like a dog than usual.

"Quiet!" Laura hushed him, her movements quick and agile as she suddenly appeared at his side and pressed a firm hand up against his mouth. They listened, Nicholas a little reluctantly as he couldn't move, to the sound of Emma turning and quickly storming away from Tony. The Iron Man tried to plead with her to think with a sane mind.

"I'll give you sane Tony Stark!" When she was through with McCorby/Williams, there going to be nothing left of him!

Laura and Nicholas looked at one another before the boy managed to make his escape. He pulled his head to the side and glared up at Laura before quietly whispering. "Do you think this is the information Julian wanted?"

From the roof they made their way down the hallway towards the boy's dormitory in complete silence. Laura was silent in her nature. Nicholas was quiet because he couldn't think of a thing to say, and Laura scared the crap out of him.

They reached Julian's room to find both Noriko and David there with him as well.

"Well?" The dark haired mutant asked, tilting his head to the side to peer around from the video game both he and David were competing against. The pair of them where hoping that the power stayed on long enough to reach the next level.

Laura opened her mouth to speak, but the young wolf beat her to it. "Leeland's Dad's a murderer, and they're keeping him in the basement." He threw himself down onto Julian's bed as the other teenagers stared at him. "What?" He asked, taking the control from Julian's loose hands.

"This true?" The telekinetic boy asked, his eye's slightly wide in alarm as Laura simply gave an none descriptive nod. "Dam." Was his only reply.

"That would explain why we were banned from being down there unless we were with a member of staff."

"They could have cancelled training." Nicholas grumbled, his tongue sticking out in concentration as he attempted to play the two-player game on his own.

David shook his head. It simply didn't seem fair. From what he could tell, Leeland was a simple boy, not very bright with mood swings no one could seem to predict. But he was kind and the little ones really seemed to like him.

"Erm, is anyone else missing the bigger picture here?" Julian turned to look at each of his classmates, even the one more concentrated on the TV. "There is a murderer in our basement."

The wolf boy looked up from the game and innocently said. "Laura killed people, and she lives in the girls dormitory." He said it without thinking and Julian with a sharp movement glared at the little thing, grabbing the controller from his hand.

"What! It's true!…oh." He turned to look at Laura when it dawned on him that perhaps it wasn't the nicest thing to say. It seemed that Laura was more interested in the bedside lamp.

"Actually." Said the girl. "I've know about Leeland's father for quite a while."

"Huh?" Came Julian's only response.

"When I was with the weapon X program, I had access to information about my competitors. Amongst them was a Mr. Jonathon McCorby, sometimes know as Williams. A very skilled Irish assassin with many high profile kills under his belt. I was aware that he lived in a rural part of England with a son two years older than myself."

"Wait, wait." Julian frowned. "If you knew about him, and Lee. Then why didn't the Weapon X project want him back?"

Noriko had been thinking something similar, surely an organisation such as Weapon X and Black Womb wanted to keep a tighter hold on those people they had experimented on. Even after Laura escaped, they still came for her and she very much doubted they had finished with her.

"Leeland was the 42nd attempt in creating that specific weapon, but for what purpose he was made is still unknown." As far as Laura was concerned, the boy was not built for a weapon to be used out in the field as she was, rather he was something to be kept closer to home.

"By the time Leeland was born, plans where under away for my commission. Perhaps they cut their loses with him."

"Or maybe he's not ready yet." Contemplated David, his ever knowledgeable mind busy at work. "Whatever Black Womb made him for, maybe it's not time yet." It was a scary possibility but what if it were true? "He hasn't quite gained any power over his mutation. What if they're waiting for the X-men to train him up?"

"You mean they're gonna try and take him, like they did with Laura?" Nicholas asked innocently, his eye's slightly wide. Santo had teased him about the dog warden hiding in his wardrobe. This had a similar feeling.

"Do we tell Leeland?" Noriko asked.

"Well the staff seem to be having fun keeping everything from him. How do we tell him this one? By the way, that missing dad of yours is actually being held prisoner in our basement. Oh and he's a serial killer." Just at that moment, the lights in the room began to flicker before they cut out completely leaving the children in a strange winter daytime darkness.

The television and games console shut themselves down and Nicholas huffed a great frustrated sigh.

"Speaking of the human battery, where is he anyway? Because I am not spending the rest of the day in the dark."

"No." Said David. "You just want to play video games for the rest of the day and ignore that assignment Mr. McCoy gave us."

"Same thing." The dark haired mutant rolled his shoulders.

xxx

Emma and Tony stood together side by side in the elevator. The atmosphere was icy cold.

"Let me speak to him first. He needs to understand the severity of what's possibly going to happen to him." Even though McCorby was not a super villain, he was still a high-risk profile meaning that Tony could intervene at any time. By rights, the man should have been already hauled up in a state prison, awaiting trial and with no bail. But as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Tony had flexibility in keeping people where he wanted them. He had no doubts that the X-men could take care of the prisoner, it was not their first function or their most desired one but they could do it and had done in the past.

"Oh darling, he's not a child. He's not even an idiot." She sighed and took the last bit back. "Of course he's an idiot." It was not that the man had continued his mercenary business; after all killing people for money was a job at the end of it all. What bothered her was that Leeland had been undetected, or at least left alone, for all those years. That was the way she had wanted it, but drawing attention to himself with more killing was idiotic! "What if he had annoyed the wrong person? Did he not think!" She wanted to hit something but that wasn't very lady like, neither was shouting at Tony.

"But the boy's fine. He's here now isn't he…where he belongs." Tony tried very hard to keep the smirk out of his words but it was hard task. Emma Frost was a hard person to figure out when it came to relationships, be they sexual, paternal or simple acquaintances. Nearly everyone was addressed with "dear" or "darling", yet these were still boundary formalities. The Iron Man knew plenty about Emma Frost. Where she came from, who her family was and how they operated. The only person she loved from that family was her brother, and he was currently locked away in an asylum.

Everyone else in Emma's family had either tried to kill her, play her off against her siblings or were so medicated they couldn't even recognise their own daughters face. No wonder she had distanced herself from the boy. The smile faded from Tony's face, it wasn't that funny really. But she cared for the boy, in her own way. Perhaps letting her shout at McCorby would let her show how much she did care. Maybe Tony just wanted to see Emma Frost angry; she was always more beautiful that way.

Jonathon glanced at his side, before staring back up at the ceiling of his Perspex prison. "You look more like ice every time you come and visit me Emma." Came his own greeting before he lapsed once again into silence.

The ice queen stood at the edge of the room, her arms crossed over her bosom. She had agreed to let Tony do the talking, for now.

"Mr. McCorby." Tony started, taking a seat in front of the prison, waiting for the mercenary to sit up and face him. He did so and tilted his head slightly to side, surveying the fine suited man in front of him. "Mr. Stark." They both knew very well why he was being detained. As well as to forbid him to see his son, it was to protect everyone involved. If the very people who created him were indeed still watching after Leeland, then surely they had agents spying on the mansion. If so, then McCorby was a risk.

As far as the mutants knew, Leeland was simply a mutant boy and nothing more. How could they know he was a government funded project? If McCorby was to be seen on sight, anything could happen. He could be shot; the students could be injured if Black Womb knew he had spilled the beans, as it were. It was all-theoretical off course, and there was also the murder charges.

"You've been tied to a murder, a cold case from three years ago."

"I've been tied to a lot of murders." He'd committed most of them.

"Yes but this one was in the city of York. Only twelve miles from the village you lived in with Leeland."

Jonathon frowned and groaned. He rested his elbow on his knees and held his head in his hand. So this was the one they wanted to talk about, the one he had both regretted and felt some kind of pride in committing. "I messed up." Came his simple and quiet response.

"So you admit to killing Mr. Ryan Moss."

"Of course I admit to it. I might be a killer by profession but I respect life enough to admit it." As far as Jonathan was concerned, the act was meant to happen. The man was meant to die that day and he was the reason why. If there was a God, then it was all in his plan.

"What do you mean you messed up?" Emma asked, stepping from her seething corner in the room and closer to the Perspex prison.

"Moss was a scientist." Said Stark. "Paid for by the government, he was based in New Mexico. In June 2003 he went to a conference on genetics and chromosome disorders. He never made it home."

"We passed by him in the city, he took a double take and then another. He knew who I was and Leeland. Fourteen years later and he remembered my face." There had been so many people he had killed on the day they had rescued Leeland, he'd missed a few of them.

"You killed him to protect the boy." Said Emma and her arm's dropped down to her side. She had been ready to charge into the room, to shout at McCorby for his stupid decision making skills. She still wanted too, but for different reasons.

"He was probably a good man to his friends, wife, kids, I don't know. I never found out. But he was involved with Black Womb and with Leeland. I couldn't have them finding him. That boy means more to me than you realise Emma, and maybe one day he'll mean just as much to you."

xxx

Heaving a great sigh, Leeland turned towards Victor and opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out and when his cheeks flushed with blood as he shrank back into his seat.

"What's wrong?" Victor asked. His new friend had been quiet since they met back up with Kitty and Alani, saying nothing to no one as the situation back home was lightly breezed over.

"Nothing." Leeland replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's just…If ah did do something to the electricity then… then ah really didn't mean to." A stubborn streak inside the boy refused to believe he had actually done anything wrong. Leeland may not have been as smart as the other students but he knew his relationship with the X-men was far greater than the bruising of his ego. After all, they were trying to help him figure out who and what he was. "Like ah didn't do it on purpose!…The electric stuff, that is." He hurriedly added, his eye's scanning quickly from Victor to Alani, who had turned from the front seat.

"Hey." Victor shook his head, resting his hand on Leeland's arm. The hair underneath the boy's jumper stood to attention, he was now very aware of that single bit of himself. "No ones going to be mad at you."

"But when we get back, act like you don't know anything about it. Ms. Frost didn't want you to know." Kitty added from the drivers seat.

"How come?" The boy frowned.

"She…she didn't want you to overreact and do something you might regret."

"I do not overreact!" Leeland exclaimed as a small jolt of pale green electricity shot across his hands. It disbursed into nothing when Victor gently squeezed his wrist, throwing his mind elsewhere. "S-sorry." He muttered again.

"You're a bag of nerves Lee, relax! What do you think they're going to do with you. You're not a criminal. Look, the most you'll get is 'try not do it again' and extra training. Right Miss Pryde?" Victor asked and the brunette shook her head with a kind smile in the re view mirror.

"Something like that, it happens to the best of us."

Victor grinned and leaned into Leeland's ear. He was now aware of his warm breath against his skin and his heart thudded loudly against his rib cage. A part of him was surprised that it simply didn't jump out of his chest and cause a ruckus inside the moving vehicle. "Couple of months ago Miss Pryde and Colossus were getting to know each a little too well. She phased right through the floor and straight into the TV room where Nick was."

Leeland giggled as Victor continued their heated little whispered conversation about how Nick had not been able to look his teachers in the eye's for weeks. Then, when he had become a little bit more confident had he started passing comments in class about what on Earth the two of them had been doing to actually phase through the floor…naked. Apparently, Julian had whispered to him exactly what they had been doing and he had burst into a fit of giggles that had lasted for days. After that, he couldn't look his teachers in the eyes for fear of laughing at them.

"Boy's?" Asked Miss Pryde, wondering what was suddenly so funny.

"Nothing." They chorused together, grinning madly at each other.

xxx

Deep in the caverns of the under ground laboratory, Beast was trying once again to run Leeland's DNA sample through his machines. The scientist had decided on a whim to try just one more time to see what kind of result he could gain; if any at all.

It was strange. At first he had presumed the machine to be faulty, but that hadn't been it. Then he had believed for a moment or so that sabotage was involved. That someone didn't want he or anyone else to find out just who the boy was. A small part of him had even thought of accusing Emma. When she had come clean about whom she was in relation to the boy everything started to slip into place.

As good as she was with machines, there was simply no reason for Emma to do such a thing. If she so wanted to, she could have wiped all of their minds without resorting to petty fiddling with the sensitive equipment.

It was turning out to be a good day after all. Perhaps it was because Leeland had, the day before, leaned on the machine? Maybe that was what it needed to make it want to work with the boy's DNA. Beast wasn't so sure, and neither did he want to jinx the theory either so he kept quiet.

The small slide with the droplet of the boy's blood, A-, rested underneath the computerised microscope. It gave a simple scan and something flickered upon the screen. The furred mutant took a second glance at the screen before peering forward with his glasses pushed near his ears. "What on…" He murmured, nose very nearly touching the screen.

"That can't be right." He turned to the keyboard, believing the machine was out of sorts again and his efforts were for nothing. However, he paused. Paw like hand resting above the keyboard, he glanced back at the computer screen before resting back in his chair. "Well, that would certainly explain many thing's but…" He frowned again, knowing full well that talking to himself would be deemed as quite mad. But then he stared at the cold metallic ceiling, nestled hundreds of feet below the surface in a tight cocoon of machines and test tubes. Speaking to himself was the least of his worries.

How strange it was that the day the generator had began to malfunction, was the day he could finally analyse the boy's blood. Very interesting.

Keying a command into the computer brought up the boy's mapped out Karyogram; a map of the 46 chromosomes a person carried in their DNA. 23 from a mother, 23 from a father. That sat in little squiggly pairs upon the screen. For mutants it was no different, only that an x gene had bound itself upon each separate Karyotype and it was most common than not to be carried by the father.

But Beast's eye's fell upon the last three chromosomes. Instead of having a simple XY chromosome, identifying male sex, there was a stray little Y that didn't belong.

The sound of Emma's voice in his head brought the man from his trance. _Henry, I have the boy-I'm going to take him down to the generator._

_Do you think that's wise with his father is such close proximity?_

_I'm tried of being wise, I want the lights to stop turning off the coffee machine to work. I'll meet you there in ten minutes-"_

_Give me fifteen._

_Why? What's wrong?_

_Oh, it's probably nothing but I think I've found out why your son is so exceptionally tall, amongst other things._

xxx

"Ok Leealnd, tell me exactly what you did to the electric supply."

In Emma's office, she, Scott and Kitty peered at the nervous boy sat in the chair in front of them. The blonde woman was perched in front of him, her arms crossed in annoyance as she stared down at the freckled boy.

"But ah didn't do anything, not…not exactly." He scratched the side of his head and wished for a moment that Victor was there. It seemed that whenever he became flustered, the green mutant could soothe thing's over.

"But you did do something?" Scott asked.

"Ah didn't mean to! I just…Ah thought about it, is all." He shrank in his chair, which was quite a feat for such a tall boy.

"You thought about what, the electric?" Kitty asked and Leeland nodded his soft mess of hair. "Yeah but…it's like with the nanobots, ah didn't know ah could make thing's happen like that."

"Hold on a second." Emma raised her hand before pressing her fingers against the bridge of her nose. "Are you telling us that you only thought about doing something with the electric supply, not actually doing it?"

"Yes!" Leeland exclaimed. "Like when ah thought about the dinosaur. Ah didn't know it would 'appen. Subcon…sub-whatever you all said." He sulked, bottom pierced lip jutted out like a scolded child. It was as if his body, his mutation, simply did not understand what his mind did.

Of course he thought about the possibility of upping the x-men's power outage. In the long run it would be half the cost for double the power. "Ah really only thought about it. It's like the rest of me decided to do it without tellin' me. But…but there's something else." He added, wondering how much more he could shrink in his seat when all eye's turned upon him once again.

"It's like I'm picking up something that ain't human, or human made runnin' this place. It's…I uhh." He didn't quite know how to explain it. It was like he had to find this power source and do, well only heaven knew what with it.

Emma understood and gave a little sigh and nod of her head. "Ok Leeland."

"Is…Is that is, can ah go?" He asked timidly.

"No. You're going to fix what you broke."

"But ah didn't do it on purpose, ah told you that!" Leeland's voice raised an octave, turning slightly whinny as he rose up his seat to defend himself. He felt a hand on his shoulder and peered at Kitty who gave him a gentle squeeze.

"Emma he's right. He didn't do it on purpose."

_No._ Thought Emma, but Hank was correct. The boy really was competing with the generator without even realising it.

"Sub-basement. Now."

Leeland trudged after Ms. Frost like a scolded puppy. Watching their reflections in the metallic flooring he noticed their similarity in the way they walked. They were both light footed he noticed, little aired steps that reminded him of almost dancing. Though it wasn't quite as eccentric as that, Ms. Frost simply had hips and he was a thin as a stick. Leeland shook his head and rolled his eyes as he turned his glance up from the floor.

"So…What's so special about this generator again?" He asked the back of Frosts platinum blonde head.

"It isn't just a generator. It was built from off world technology; Shi'ar."

"It's…alien?" Leeland asked, stepping his pace up a little to walk side by side with Ms. Frost. The woman nodded as they turned a corner. "As the X-men we have a duty to protect mutants and humans alike here on Earth and if that means making alien alliances then so be it." Oh Leeland knew Aliens existed, everybody did. The Kree, the Skrulls and he were certain there were more out there. The universe didn't just belong to five species. He had just never been in such close proximity with something off world.

"No wonder if felt different." Said Leeland staring ahead. "Like it didn't quite belong but it's like… Ah dunno." He frowned. "Like it's a bit more aware than everything else 'ere."

"That's because Shi'ar technology is sentient. We use hologram technology in the danger room which is fuelled by the nano-bots as well as the cloaking device on the jet."

"So, the generator is…alive?"

"Yes, and you've been competing together. Now it's time to make up and be friends darling."

"But Ms. Frost this is just a school. Why do you need all this other technology?"

"Leeland, Xavier's is more than just a school. It's also a home, the head quarters for the X-men and where almost seventy percent of the world's mutant population reside. This is the closest thing our people have to an embassy." Emma turned her gaze and smiled at him. It was warm and familiar like when his father would smile at him.

"Guess I've got more to learn than ah thought ah did."

"You have all the time in the world, Leeland."

A noise erupted further up the corridor, a great crash and one of the metallic doors was blow clear from it's hinges. It clattered out against the reseeding wall before falling like creaking timber to the ground.

Tony Stark came right after the door, shot with a vivid burst of what appeared to be bright blue electric. His body had very little time to slam against the metal before his encoded suit of Iron began to form a protective cocoon around him.

"Now ah know ah didn't do that!" Leeland said a little breathlessly.

"Leeland stay there. You stay right there and you don't move!" Emma warned him and there was simple something about her tone that made him nod his head and not question her as she rushed forward.

The room in question was the prison room and Tony stood in front of it, not reacting as he simple held up his hands in defense. "I'm not going to hurt you son, just lower your hands."

"Tony?" Emma had come within ten or so feet of the iron clad man before a sudden wave of unknown emotion crashed into her. Anger, fear, adrenaline hit her head like a hammer and she stumbled ever so slightly.

"No." Came a deep but young voice, English but even more clipped sounding in accent to Leeland's. A boy no more eighteen but barely over five foot appeared in the doorway with his hands outstretched. The bright electrical substance weaved around his arm's and wrists and he took a deep breath before he tried to speak but an oh so familiar voice beat him too it.

"Brian!" The blonde exclaimed, his voice higher than he would have liked it to be as he stared at his dreadlocked friend. The best friend who cradled him in his arms as blood poured from his ears now stood like man possessed, before a grin spread out across his face.

"S'up Lee."

**TBC~**


	17. Five To One Against And Falling

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 23/08/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 17:** Five To One Against And Falling

In disbelief, Leeland stared down the corridor. His eyes were wide from what he could only assume was shock. Words would not form in his mouth despite his lips opening and closing like a confused water deprived fish.

The smoke cleared from the doorway that the dread locked boy currently occupied. With his chest still heaving he turned his attention back towards Emma and Tony and tilted his head towards them. "What? You think ah'm just gonna stop 'cos you say tah? Where ah come from, fight's a fight." He went to step forward, the strange glowing substance around his hand's shuddered in response.

_Scott! Code Red. Sub basement-_

_Wait, what's happening? Are you all right?_

_I'm perfectly fine Scott, but I would appreciate you and a few of the other's down here as quick as you possibly could-….now._

"Son, we're not going to fight you-"

"Like 'ell yah not tin man!" The boy physically shook through a combination of fear and anger. With the drive of determination he raised his hands again and began to mutter quickly under his breath.

Though Leeland was a distance away, the words travelled towards his ears before decoding themselves inside his brain. It took a matter of mili-seconds for them to become recognisable to him through the nonsense ringing and beeping that everyone made.

It was a random pattern of Korean words, looped together over and over. Whatever it was that Brian was doing, it was certainly slowing down Ms. Frost's ability to take over a mind. The blonde boy watched helplessly, in slight awe, as a blue shield of the same shimmering substance from around his friends hands rose up to protect him.

Ms. Frost had made it perfectly clear that he was not to move from that spot. But there, not ten feet or so away from him, stood his life long friend whom he had not seen in weeks. A friend who, last time he checked, could not shoot electricity from his hands or mumble ancient Korean spells.

Putting one foot in front of the other he started to make his way towards Brian, ignoring Emma's words for him to stand still. It was then that the second voice hit him like a sharp slap in the face.

"Brian, stop it! You're going to get your self killed." Even without seeing the man, or indeed truly hearing his voice, Leeland knew perfectly well who was hidden in the room behind his friend. For a moment he believed he was simply hearing things, but that was not the case. Whatever scientific insanity made his powers work in such a strange way made it perfectly clear in his mind who it was.

"Dad?" In that instance, everything was forgotten. That the man who had raised was not really his father, but a paid mercenary who had taken a shine to him when he was barely old enough to hold his head up by himself. All of it gone. First and foremost, the man was his father.

He rushed forward, Emma shouted for him to stop but he ignored her. The dread locked boy sidestepped from the door, allowing enough room for Leeland to halt suddenly in the door frame. And there he was.

Both father and son stared at each, Leeland a little more wide eyed that his father. The man was sill stood inside his plastic prison, one hand spread out against the barrier closet to his son.

"Get him out of here!" Someone behind him shouted before a strong arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him backwards out of the room. Turning his head sharply he saw Cyclops and did not give a second thought as he ducked down and backwards out of the man's arms. That trick had helped him out of many bully confrontations in the past.

"Leeland don't!" His father shouted as he went to run forward again but someone caught a hold of his wrist. Brian locked his fingers around the skinny jumper covered appendage and turned his taller friend sharply towards him. Losing his balance, Leeland slipped and fell to his knees with a rather audible crack.

"Sorry." Brain winced. "An' sorry again." A blue mist rose up around them before a crackling noise erupted through the corridor. In a matter of seconds, a light had blinded the corridor occupants and the boy's vanished.

The x-men stood there in silent shock for all of two seconds.

"What the hell was all that?" Logan appeared around the corner and Emma gritted her teeth. "Nice of you to finally join us Logan but you've missed all of the fun. Scott-" She looked up at her husband who was still stood staring at the spot the two boy's had vanished from.

"I hope you have a plan Emma because I'm fresh out of idea's."

"Find my girls, I want them down here and in Cerebro in five minutes. Logan-" She turned towards the Wolverine. "Take X-23 and Wolf Club and scout around the perimeter. Two teenage boy's can't go that far."

"Tony-" She turned towards the iron plated man and very nearly clicked her tongue. "I believe we just found your magic user." Her gaze caught Jonathan in his plastic prison as she turned without another word.

"He won't hurt him!" She heard the man calling as they began to walk quickly away. There was certainly no point in panicking, worrying or anything to that degree. The trick to being an X-man was to be calm and assertive even in the face of danger.

What worried Emma was not the magic boy who had invaded their home with out raising the alarm bells. It was not even that said magic boy had taken Leeland, she had faith in him to keep him self in one piece; he was smarter than he let on. No, Emma worried about every one else out there who was still determined that Leeland was for their own taking.

The two young boys reappeared in open space in a whirlwind of abrupt air and crackling power. Leeland stumbled backwards out of Brian's grip and slumped on a near by tree. Then he felt the rise of bile in his mouth before he vomited hard against the cold ground.

"That's t'second thing ah was sorry about. First being yah knee's an' all. You 'right?" Leeland heard his friend somewhere behind him as he wiped sick from his mouth and turned, glaring over his shoulder.

"What the hell was that!" The pale figure leaned back against the tree, one hand pressed hard against his now spinning head.

Brian had changed. Now he had more time to focus upon him, he noticed that the usual smirk of his best friends face had vanished. Instead, his face fell into sad lines, unshaven for days and needing a good re lock on his dreads. "Transdimentional Travel." He said quietly, fiddling with his hands for something to do, rather than stare at Leeland's accusing eyes. "I ain't quite got t'hang of it yet." He admitted with a small shrug of his shoulders. "First time ah did it, went an' left me legs but uhh…yah don't wanna hear about tha'." he added quickly before he started to look around the large cluster of tree's that they where hidden in.

"A-huh." Was all that Leeland could reply with, his eye's never leaving his friends face.

"Then yah can dam well take me back!" Leeland pushed himself away from the tree, stumbling on his long legs to tower over his shorter friend.

"Ah can't!"

"Why the hell not? Brian Sier, you're gonna take me back to mah Dad and you're gonna do it now!" Leeland's voice rose an octave or two and several birds shot up into the sky.

"I CAN'T!" Came Brian's heated reply as the two of them stood practically chest-to-chest with their fists clenched in angry balls. "Ah can only do it every half 'hour." He murmured the last bit quietly before backing away, hands still clenched by his sides.

The blonde mutant blinked a few times before he closed his eyes. After a deep breath he opened them and calmly asked: "Why didn't you tell me you're a mutant?"

Brain shot his head up and glared before his features softened into what could only be described as annoyance. "I ain't no mutant!…no offence." He quickly added.

"Then what was, all-yah, know…was-That!" The taller boy waved his arms about, finding no other way to portray his confusion. Everything had come at once suddenly, like Christmas and a birthday but only in reverse. The face of his father kept flashing into his mind's eye and motion sickness got the better of him again. Staggering, he wobbled on the spot and had to grab hold of a tree for support.

Brian scratched the back of his head. "It's kinda hard to explain."

"Then use small words." Leeland glared, wondering whether to swallow the sour spit or vomit again. "Where are we anyhow?" He looked up and around. They were in a dense cluster of tree's he couldn't name, but it was certainly dark meaning they were well covered. They were nowhere near the institute, that was for certain.

"Erm, I'm not really sure. Still in Massachusetts-I think." Brian scratched the back of his head and stared around the trees before rubbing at his arms. A long t-shirt was the only thing that covered his torso and Leeland frowned, shrugging off his jacket and holding it out to him.

"Don't be daft, you'll freeze."

"Ah'll freeze?" Came Leeland's slightly amused, if not annoyed reply. He simply held the jacket out towards his friend and shrugged his shoulders. "Take it. Then yah tell me everything." Leeland couldn't understand why he wasn't as mad as he thought he would be. Of course, seeing his father locked up like that had thrown him for a few moments. As well as seeing his best friend who could teleport people and shoot stuff from his hands.

He was mad. He was annoyed. He wanted to hit the tree and scream the forest down but first he had to understand. Had to decode.

The boy shuddered. He tried not thinking about using the word 'decode' when referring to people.

"Ok fine." Brian reluctantly agreed, but gratefully, took the jacket and slipped it around him self. He then nodded over his shoulder. "Come on, got summat to show yah." They began to walk in silence, Leeland's long legs catching up with his shorter friend.

The other boy kept his gaze forward where as Leeland stared right at him, as if waiting for the answers to fall out of his head.

"Look. You gotta understand summat first. Promise yah won't get all mad at me though?" Brian didn't look up as he spoke, kept on walking forward with his vision straight ahead.

"Well it's either shout at yah, or hit yah. I'd take yah pick." Leeland shrugged, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. It was colder than it was in the morning, their breaths fogged out in front of them and he began to feel the loss of heat from the jacket. They walked for several minutes in silence, the forest seemed never ending and on going. Stray branches snapped under their feet as dry winter leaves were crushed. They came to a clearing, surrounded by small shrubs and foliage. Hidden behind a cluster of thorny roots was a little tent. It looked as if Brian had been sleeping rough for weeks, just as he had thought.

"Please tell me you ain't been sleepin' out 'ere?" He asked with an all mighty sigh. Now he felt more tired than angry and turned his gaze towards his smaller friend. The dark haired boy gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders and proceeded towards the tent. "Well someone 'ad to keep an eye on yah."

"Ah think the X-men had that covered, mate." The blonde murmured, sitting himself down on an old stump near the tent as Brian began to rummage around inside it.

"That's the thing though-they didn't. That place has all them psychic's right? An' not one of 'em noticed me. "

Leeland wasn't sure if he wanted congratulating or not. Instead he kept the witty retort to himself and watched the other boy climb back out of the tent with a book bag and a blanket, which he threw towards Leeland. "Ere, ah know what you're like with catching colds."

"I've all ready got one…ah think." He sniffled but was grateful for the green fleecy material that he wrapped around his shoulders. Sitting himself in front of his tall pale friend, Brian began to poke around in the book bag and pulled out a large heavy book. It was old, the spine looked ready too fall apart but Brian clutched it like it was precious.

"This." Started Brian, turning the old book to show the other boy but never letting it out of his grasp. "Is my birth right." The blonde arched a pierced eyebrow; Brian rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that look, ahm serious. This is where ah learnt to teleport from, but not just anyone can do it. Gotta be able to know the magic before yah can do it."

"Magic?" Leeland frowned, resting his head on top of his knees.

"Yeah. I'm a warlock."

xxx

Julian had been pottering around his bedroom, walking back and forth trying to decide how best to approach Leeland with the news of his father. However, that thought was stricken from his mind when the red alert alarm was sounded sending him straight for the corridors. There he met several bewildered faces, Victor's included.

"Where's Lee?" He asked, noticing the green mutant was by himself.

"Dunno." Victor shrugged. "Ms. Frost and Mr Summers took him off to their office as soon as we stepped in the building. I thought it was about the generator."

Nicholas appeared from his bedroom in a hurried fashion, zipping up his little X-suit as he ran without word down the corridor. The other boy's watched him with puzzled expressions.

"Uhhh Nick?" Julian asked, his hands palm up in confusion. The little boy had barely enough time to look over his shoulder.

"Didn't you hear? Leeland's gone missing, someone stole him."

Victor didn't wait to ask questions as he rushed forward, grabbing the wolf boy gently but firmly and turning him towards him. "Who took him? When!"

"I don't know. Mr. Logan wants me and Laura to sniff around the forests to see if we can find them." He sounded almost excited, very nearly grinning. But he caught Victor's concerned expression and quickly cleared his throat. "Look, I gotta go. The cuckoo's are in Cerebro trying to locate them both." He turned and ran towards the top of the corridor before disappearing around the corner.

"Come on!" Victor grabbed up Julian's wrist and tugged him down the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Asked Julian as they raced after the fast little wolf.

"I have an idea."

"Victor hold on, there's something I need to tell you." Julian took a hold of Victor's shoulder and pulled him around to face him. "I know I should be telling Lee this but it's his dad. They have him down in the sub-basement, in the prison cells."

"What have they got him down there for?" He asked with a frown, ready to set off again.

"Victor listen to me!" Grabbing a hold of Victor's arm, Julian spun him around so they faced each other again. "They've had him down there for a week. His dad's a mercenary."

Blinking, Victor pulled his arm free from the other boy's grasp and stared up at him. It was certainly an odd thing to be told, but nothing that warranted such a tone from Julian.

"What if it's his Dad who's taken him?"

Placing his hand up to his head, Victor rubbed it in frustration. If his father had taken him back then what chance did they have in finding him? No, no he couldn't think like that. They would find Leeland, they would bring back both him and his father-if he was the perpetrator-and they would have dam long chat about the whole ordeal!

xxx

A small clearing in the forest was starting to erode away with Leeland's footsteps. He kept walking back and forth and around in circles, running everything though his brain with an utter lost look of pure bewilderment and confusion. "So your dad was a Warlock?"

"Yup."

"And my dad's a mercenary?" Of course, Leeland all ready sort of knew that from what Ms. Frost had told him.

"Ah-yup."

"And they were partners in some mercenary business?" He turned to look down at the other boy who nodded his head. "And you're a warlock?" He asked and again Brian nodded. Leeland stopped his pacing and crouched down next to his friend before back handing him around his ears.

"Ahh!" Brian flung his arms up in the air and covered his head with his arms.

"Yah big idiot! Why didn't you tell me any of this!" He hit the top of his arms again for good measure, and then again because it felt good.

"Oww-Lee! Lee, stop it-ahh-" Brian threw out his hands and encircled his fingers around the other boy's skinny wrists and pulled on them hard. Leeland stumbled and fell down to the ground in front of his friend, his head bowed as the top of his arms shook. "We…we're supposed to be best friends." His voice was quiet and uncertain when he looked up with his pale eyes, Brian saw that it was the most tired he had ever seen him.

"We are." Brian said as equally quiet, his fingers still locked around Leeland's wrists, but not as tight as they once were. "But I was banned from ever telling yah…anything! Couldn't tell yah about me, couldn't tell you about your dad or your powers."

"You knew ah was a mutant?" There was slight accusation in the blondes voices but Brian had come to accept that.

"Of course ah bloody knew." Brian sighed and reluctantly let go of his friend's wrists. "See, as long as ah could remember, Ah've been able to do stuff. Just little things, light a fire 'ere an there. Ah knew what me dad was, knew what ah was but ah couldn't tell anybody. Me Dad did this spell when we were little'un's…to us-look I'll understand if yah get pissed off at me-"

"Brian. Just tell me."

"When ever you found about your powers, I'd know straight away. No matter where ah was."

"Whenever I found out? But Bria-"

"Oh Leeland! Let me finish. Please." There was nothing worse than being cut off mid sentence. It was a trait of Leeland's that Brian had come to loathe. That, and his stubborn sulking that could last for days. The dark haired boy had been mentally preparing himself for one of those sulks.

"Now ah'm gonna tell yah, but you ain't too cut me off, right?" He asked, face serious and deadpan. For a second he didn't think Leeland would accept but reluctantly he nodded his head. He sat in front of Brian with his knees pulled up to his chest, the blanket wrapped tight around his body waiting for the worst of it. The cold chill of the end of November swept around them and the boy's began to shiver.

"You've 'ad yah powers since, well, since yah were probably born. But me Dad did a spell so you wouldn't have to deal with it for a few years. Nobody wants a toddler that can cause power cuts. When we was four, Dad got this crazy idea, it was just before he died." Sometimes Brian believed that his father had gone mad long before the aneurysm had killed him. "You still had your powers, yah jus' couldn't use 'em. See whenever yah got pissed off or upset, they'd come out. You'd do all this crazy shit and scared everyone 'alf to death."

Leeland shuddered, pulling the blanket up and around his mouth. With his eye's closed, he listened to Brian and tried to remember ever using his powers before but he remembered nothing.

"That's where ah come in. You'd get your powers, I'd know about it. One spell, and you forgot and everyone else who wasn't supposed to know. I uhh…I've lost count on how many times your mutation came out." Brian admitted with a slight sheepish tone but it was nothing in comparison to Leeland's quiet composer.

Some stubborn part of him refused to believe any of it was true as he tried desperately to remember any of those times. The only one he could think of was the pylon accident. Broken bones, head trauma and a ankle that never set right again but no physical proof that a few thousand volts of electricity had ran through his little child's body.

"Leeland?" Brian chewed the side of his lip before he braved being hit again. He reached his hands out and placed them on his friend's shoulders. "Leeland, look at me. Come on, it ain't that bad."

The boy opened his eyes and looked up at his friend, his mouth still covered as he muttered "You wouldn't do it again, would you? The spell…" It was hard for him to call it a spell. Spells and magic were for books and TV. But then again, people were not supposed to control minds or shoot laser beams from their eyes.

Brian shook his head, he couldn't think of the right way to tell Leeland that he was being an idiot. "No Leeland. Didn't want to do it in the first place, but ah 'ad no choice. You gotta believe me."

Not saying anything, Leeland kept him mouth hidden and gave a simple nod of his head. Too much to sort out too soon. All this new information made his head hurt terribly and he shivered something rotten. He wondered what Brian would want him to say, what Brian would expect him to say. There was nothing he could think of. He'd been lied to most of his life. He supposed the trend simply wasn't going to stop.

However, he was not the only person on the planet or in the universe with problems. "It could be worse." The boy spoke up with a serious expression on his face.

"How so?" Brian asked, clutching at his knees like a child of six.

"Could be in some war torn African country. Or I could be like those people in Berkshire who only get their bins emptied once a fortnight." A little smile crept into the corner of his mouth and the two best friends smirked at each other.

There was a truce. Neither was happy but no one ever was.

xxx

Nicholas really did love dirt. He loved digging in it, rolling in it and above all he loved the smell of it. But right at that moment, it was clouding every sane judgment he was having.

There was nothing he could scent on the air apart from the cold and rotten damp leaves that had laid themselves out like a morbid decaying carpet. With a huff, he tracked the way he came through the forest that hid the Xavier Institute. Well, it didn't so much as hide it as keep it excluded. Every one knew what the school was and where it was for that matter. The forest came with it, and Nicholas like it very much.

"Wolf Cub!" He turned his head to the sound of his code name and peered up at the form of Wolverine coming through the dense cluster of trees. "Anything this side?" He asked but the boy could only shake his head and gently kick the dirt with his boot.

"I can't smell anybody." Leeland's scent was easy; sweet. Every body and everything had a scent and Nicholas knew them all. Logan smelt of oil and smoke, it was to be expected. The girls all smelt like their perfume, except for Megan who was similar to Leeland. Where as the Pixie's girl was light and fresh, the blondes seemed almost faint and musky.

The boy couldn't explain it even if he wanted to. It was hard trying to understand how everyone thought in the first place without delving into how they smelt.

Logan looked almost annoyed, which made the child feel as disappointed as he looked.

"Chin up pup. We'll make an X-man outta one day." It was a compliment and a well received one as Nicholas grinned and made his way towards the older mutant.

They met up with Laura who simply shook her head. "There are tacks, someone was here watching the mansion." She pointed behind her.

The wolf child was told that they were looking for someone Leeland's age and he was desperate to ask questions. Who, what, when, where were just some of the words floating around his head. But he had learned when he was younger that if he was going to be taken on field duty with Wolverine of all people then he had to be quiet. If he wasn't quiet, Logan would get mad at him and never take him out again.

"There not here, are they." The boy voiced that one little opinion before falling silent again.

"No. He's taken Leeland a lot farther than just the forest." Pressing his finger to his ear, Logan clicked his communication device. "Emma, no luck. Tell the girls to widen their search State wise, National and International if they have too. Blondie's not here."

The three identical girls stood within Cerebro, the metallic helmets secure upon their head's. They widened the search, just as Emma had instructed them.

"Don't you think it's time we told him?" Said Celeste, her features stoic as she concentrated on the digitalised map in front of her.

"That he's our elder brother?" Asked Mindee.

"Or that he Emma's son?" Phoebe finished. Of course they didn't need to speak out loud, it was something that had been playing on their collective minds for a while. The girl's appeared emotionless, it did not mean that they where heartless or without feeling. They wanted a family as much as any other child. Only theirs was a little more confusing than most.

"They're not ready yet."

"Neither of them."

"She doesn't find it hard to consider us her daughters. She's always liked the idea that we were little versions of herself."

"But we were born almost fully grown in a test tube. Leeland, he's harder to consider."

"Harder to mould into her perfect image."

"Emma isn't perfect." That was something all three of them agreed upon.

_Cerebro bleeped softly at them and the girls smiled. Miss Frost. We've found your magical boy._

"They're in Massachusetts, not far from the state line but we can't get to it with the jet." Emma said as they congregated in the sub basements corridor. They had a location and even means to get close but none of them were sure what they would be stepping in to. "His father assures me the boy's are old friends. So he's not in danger." Tony reassured the X-men but Emma shook her head. "That's all well and said, but we don't know who else is out there. He was safer here." Since the boy's disappearance, the generator had started to work normally again. The boy was possibly too far out of range.

Before the decimation of over ninety percent of mutants, there would have had means to reach them. Teleportation, or something close. The only teleporter they did have was an eleven-year-old boy in the German circus whose mother was reluctant to let him off her apron strings. Emma didn't fault her.

From around the corner peered Victor and Julian, the later fitting his uniform gloves in place.

"Boy's?" Scott frowned beneath his visor as the two young mutants looked at each other before stepping forward. "I-We, we have an idea." Said Victor. Having been previously a team leader was about to come in handy.

Glancing at Julian he turned back to the X-Men now surveying him and relayed what he had hurriedly explained to his friend but in more detail.

"If you go storming in their with the entire cavalry, you're going to scare them both half to death." Maybe not Leeland, but they knew little to nothing about the perpetrator.

"And what do you propose?" Emma asked, wondering why she had never offered Victor a place on her young Hellions team.

"You take us there via the jet and we get them, just the two of us."

"I use my powers to trek through the forest, Victor camouflages the both of us from view." What they were going to do about a possible gun-wielding mercenary had not yet been decided.

"It sounds like a solid plan boys, but my concern is how old you both are." Tony offered his comment and was met by a glare from the two young mutants.

"We've done more in the past two years then you've done your entire life!" Julian exclaimed, it was a slight exaggeration of the truth.

"Hellion..." Emma warned softly, moving towards Tony with her hand placed on the teenager's shoulders. "Thank you for you concern Tony but these are our students and they're bright enough to come up with well executed plans."

"You can't honestly expect two teenage boys to go out there and bring them both back just on their own?" Tony very nearly laughed, a smile forming on his exposed mouth. However, the X-men seemed quite serious.

"You have to be kidding me? After what happened last year with the school bus and the purifiers?"

Victor's eye's shot to the ground as his heart began to hammer painfully inside his chest. "You weren't there." He started quietly. "You don't get to march in here like an over paid trash can and tell mutants what to do!" It had left the young mutants mouth quicker than he an expected it too. He shrugged away the hand on his shoulder and stalked forward. "What were you doing when our people almost went extinct? Nothing! You didn't do anything about it, hell I don't even know why you're here!" The green mutant stood in front of the Iron armoured man, a look a pure annoyance etched across his face.

The avenger uncrossed his arms and stared down at the mutant child before casting a glance at both Emma and Scott. Their faces were a softer mimic of the boy in front of him.

"Mr. Stark. You have a job to do down the corridor. The students are not your responsibility." Said Scott with a stoic expression as Tony simply shook his head.

"Fine." Came his only reply as he pushed off from the wall and began down the corridor. "We need to talk later Emma." And he disappeared into one of the rooms, the one the teenagers recognised as the prison room.

"Hold on a second." Julian frowned, pulling away from Emma to stand with Victor. "If Leeland's Dad is still in the prison room, then who the hell has taken him?"

Scott blinked behind his visor "How did you know we had him down here?" He questioned. Victor glanced sideways at Julian who gave a small roll of his shoulders. "Talking about imprisoned people on the front lawn in Nicky's ear shot isn't exactly keeping it quiet." He admitted, trying to hide the smirk. It was only a slight fabrication of the truth. The boy had been grounded several times in the past for 'exploiting' the wolf child.

"So, who was it that took Leeland if his father is still here?" Victor asked with a puzzled look.

xxx

"Yah want me to show yah a spell?" Asked Brian, a look of utter confusion upon his face. Leeland shrugged as he sat back against the tree resting behind him.

"Not as if we're doing much else." He admitted, besides he was curious as to what it was his friend could do. People had always fascinated him to some degree; those with powers of course. Be they mutant, bit by something radioactive or had the mystical arts running through their veins. He was interested because he didn't believe he had any of that. Well now he knew different.

"Well all right then, but I ain't really got the hang of it yet."

"You've had nearly all your life to 'get the hang of it'." Leeland frowned but his friend simply shook his head. "Practising spells at the dead of night in t'middle of a deserted field is not exactly ideal." He frowned as his lips pursed into a sour expression but Leeland was reluctant to let it go and sat with his arms crossed over his chest.

Giving up, Brian took the old spell book and placed it on his lap with a disgruntled sigh. "You're not going to sulk are you?" He asked the blonde who rolled his eyes but moved closer to Brian. Sitting in front of him with the blanket wrapped around his shoulders he gave him a look as if to say; there, that better? It was not a pleased look but Brian could live with that.

"Ok then." He started brightly as he flicked through the thin delicate pages. "What do yah wanna see."

Leeland shrugged. "A way to go home?"

"We'll get to that once we get yah Dad out of there." Brian reassured him with out even an upward glance, still flicking through the pages. Pulling a face Leeland kept quiet until Brian looked up at him with a broad smile that soon dwindled with confusion. "I meant going home to...to Xavier.'s" He admitted quietly, gaze shuffling down to the ground.

"Huh?"

"Not that ah wouldn't want to go home _home_ either!" He added just as quickly before chewing on one side of his lip. "It's just safer here I guess, and they're teaching me to use my powers."

"Leeland. They have your Dad locked up in their basement an' you're ok with that?"

"Of course not! But...but there's gotta be a reason for it."

"Jesus Christ Leeland you are so thick sometimes."

Leeland abruptly stood uo with the blanket and glared at his friend. "Fine then, if I'm so stupid ah guess ah won't be able to get back on me own." And he turned from the spot and began to walk away.

"Lee..." Brian sighed as he shook his head. "Leeland. Leeland?" The dread locked boy began to shout for his friend who ignored him and kept on walking. "And how the hell do you expect to get back there on your own!" Brian shouted but it was to no avail; Leeland was being stubbornly annoying.

With an irritated groan, he got up to chase after him with the book held firmly under his arm. "Come on mate, don't be like this." He pleaded as he caught up with his friend. Leeland refused to look at him and tightened his grip on the blanket covering his cold arms. "Talk to me? Come on, we've never been like this."

"No." Replied Leeland. "Cos ah was under the impression that we were both semi normal." He turned to look down at Brian, turning on the spot in the middle of clearing. "If you were so concerned about rescuing me then why didn't you do it sooner."

"It was complicated." Brian fairly whined. "Look, I'll show yah a spell."

"Ah don't want to see a spell! Ah wanna to go somewhere warm where I'm not freezing mah knackers off! Ah want to see Dad...I wanna go back to Xavier's now Brian!"

Brian stared at him with an unreadable expression. "What's their name?" He asked.

Leeland frowned. "Who?"

"Oh don't give me that. There's someone at Xavier's you like. That's why you don't want to go back to England."

"You are so childish." The boy couldn't believe the conversation had stooped so low. He turned with another shake of his head and a bored, if not hurt look in his eyes. "See yah Brian. Ah'll get back on my own."

"This is bull shit and you know it! What's Xavier's got that England hasn't, huh?"

Leeland stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath before closing his eyes. "Drop it. Just drop everything and go home." What did Brian want him to say? What did he want to say to Brian? "Six week's and ah hear nowt from anyone. Ah was on my own, and don't say you didn't know exactly where ah was." He shrugged his shoulders and pressed a hand against the side of his head. A migraine had started to build behind his eyes and the cold of the forest wasn't helping.

"Look, ah'm going home." He looked over his shoulder at the confused boy. "Ah think you should too...I'll call yah or summat." He added with a soft smile before he started on his walk through a forest that he didn't know in a county that was almost alien.

"Oh come on Lee, don't be like that!" Brian called, watching his best friend walk away from him. "Leeland!" He called in disbelief. "LEELAND STOP!" He shouted and the remaining birds shot from tree's. The tall boy turned just in time too see something blue shooting towards him and with no intention of stopping.

There was little time to think, let alone move before the blast hit him squarely in the side of the head. Then nothing as he blinked in confusion before his eye's rolled into the back of his head and he promptly fell unconscious hitting the forest floor with a thud.

Shocked, Brian stood with his mouth partially opened and stared at the unmoving body of his friend. "Uhh. Lee?" He asked timidly but when he gained no response he rushed forward and stared down at the still breathing body. He gave a sigh of relief as Leeland's chest rose and fell but what he couldn't figure out was what on Earth he had done.

The boy scratched his head and even nudged his friend with the tip of his toe. "Aww crap." He shoved the book down the back of his jeans before grabbing his friend's skinny arms and started to pull him back towards the tent to think.

xxx

"So." Julian asked over his shoulder as the wind whipped through his hair and he dodged tightly knitted trees. "What do you think we'll find when we, well, find them?" He asked the green mutant who was stood on the back of his telekinetic board, his hands resting with a tight grip on his shoulders. The board was made from pure telekinetic power that radiated bright green from the boy's fists. It allowed him to travel at super sonic speeds in a matter of seconds.

"Not sure." Victor admitted with a small frown, his eye' slightly closed to shield them from the wind. "But if he's a wizard then there's no telling what they could be doing. What if they're fighting?" _Or worse._ Thought Victor. _What if Leeland wants to leave?_

"Then we better get our ref gloves on and a pick a side." Julian reassured him with a smile in his voice.

_Hellion, you're almost upon their location. The _cuckoo's piped into his head and the boy nodded. "Ready Anole?"

"Ready." Victor replied. Concentrating, his camouflaging ability took a hold and began to blend them both into the forest surroundings. They began their descent down towards the leaf-strewn ground and the telekinetic board shimmered away. Once on the ground, Victor had too keep a hold of Julian as to not break the camouflage as they crept through the forest.

_He's just up a head._ Came the Cuckoo's disembodied voices inside both the boy's heads.

_Which one, Lee or the other guy?_ Julian hurriedly asked as they moved from tree to tree. The trees became less dense as they stumbled upon a small clearing.

_The Brian boy. We still can't get a proper reading with Leeland-_

_Hold that thought girls._ Julian cut across them as he and Victor made their way forward and came across quite a bizarre site that neither had anticipated.

A short scruffy looking boy with wild dread locks stood at the head of Leeland's rather unconscious looking body, a book held open in front of him. He was beginning to look rather flustered and even slightly nervous. Licking his lips, the boy turned another page and his eyes zoomed across the page. Then he placed his hand in front of the boy and muttered under his breath, but nothing happened.

Groaning in frustration the boy flopped down upon the tree stump situated just behind him and rested his head in his hands. "I do not believe this. Of all the stupid-uhh!" He hauled the book as hard as he could in the unfortunate direction of Victor who marginally managed to not be hit by it. The old look book landed with a hard thud just behind the green mutant and his camouflaged teammate.

"Uhh." Julian pulled away from Victor with a frown and a small raise of his hand. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked and materialised, as it appeared, from nowhere.

Brian nearly jumped ten feet in the air whilst still sat on the tree stump. His eyes grew wide at the young X-men suited boy before he peered down at Leeland's still unconscious body.

"I Uhhh...Where the hell...This-" He looked quickly down at Leeland again. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Well it's looks pretty suspicious to me!"

"Oh for pity sake Hellion." Well it seemed they were not going to stick with the camouflaged plan. Victor allowed himself to be seen again and walked quickly towards where Leeland was laid.

Brian jumped backwards in his seat this time, his eye's wide in disbelief at the green skinned boy with spikes that covered where hair should have been. Shaking his head, Victor resisted the urge to simply tut and knelt down next to Leeland, checking both his pulse and his eye's. They were white and had rolled back considerably far into his head. "What have you done to him?" Victor quickly glanced up at the startled British boy.

"Ah don't know! Ah can't seem to reverse it-Hey, what are you doing?"

Victor had begun to gently lift Leeland up from the cold ground and fireman lifted him up onto his shoulder. The height difference went unnoticed and as for strength, Leeland weighed as much as stick. "Low blood sugar can cause a diabetic to lose consciousness quicker than usual. Did you not think about that before you hit him, or what ever it was that you did?"

"I did not hit him. At least not like that."

"We need to get him back to the jet as quick as we can." Victor turned to Julian, now ignoring the boy in front of them.

"Is he all right?"

"Hopefully, but I don't think he's had his insulin since this morning, and out here in this cold..." Victor was starting the feel the chill himself and he'd been hardly out of the jet twenty minutes. Julian nodded and settled his hand down to form the telekinetic board to safely transport them back to the jet and the X-men.

"W-where are you taking him?" Brian suddenly asked as Victor stepped onto the board after Julian, clutching to Leeland to keep him secure. "Back where he belongs." Julian frowned as they started their descent.

"HEY!" Brian shouted, but Julian was not ready for the blast of energy that hit the underside of the board, topping it backwards with all three of it occupants. The quickest to react, Victor shot out his elongated tongue, wrapping it around an old foul tasting tree. He pulled up both himself and Leeland's uncooperative body before quickly turning to make sure that Julian had landed safely.

His teammate had unfortunately landed hard upon the ground with an audible smack. "That..." Began Julian, his teeth gritted. "Hurt." He looked up with his stinging hands that had been partially protected by the gloves. A split lip graced his mouth and had begun to dribble blood down his chin. Rising to his feet, the once sure blue eye's flared green and it traveled with lighting speed down to his hands.

Brian had little time to react as Julian shot a blast of pure telekinetic energy straight at him. It hit him square in chest, sending him backwards into a small crumpled heap that didn't move for a second. Smirking, the mutant boy turned to find Victor and grinned up at him in the tree.

"Hellion!" Victor shouted, looking behind his teammate. Julian turned with a frown but it disappeared at the sight of the Brian and his hands engulfed in a bright blue substance not to dissimilar from his own telekinetic power.

"Bad idea." Said Brian in a deep tone, his eye's flaring bright blue as he wasted no time in shooting his own blast of energy back full force. "Whatever you can dish out mutant, ah can do one better!" He shouted and another forceful blast was hurled at the young X-Man.

Scowling, Julian ducked quickly and pressed his body deep into the ground as the blast soared over him. It hit a nearby tree where it disbursed into nothing causing the mutant to laugh before jumping to his feet. A board was made and he quickly jumped upon it before ascending into the sky.

"Hellion, stop messing about!" Victor growled through gritted teeth, moving Leeland onto his other shoulder.

"Pff. I can take him." Another blast hit the board but this time Julian was ready. He grabbed the board with both hands and propelled it downwards, riding the warlock boy's magic.

"Get Leeland to the jet!" Julian called over his shoulder before taking off into the depths of the forest, Brian hot on his trail. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Brian conjure a similar bored of blue before chasing after Julian. An audible bang and a flash of blue and green erupted into the air not far above their heads causing Victor to groan in frustration.

"Dammit Julian." Hissed Victor one arm still wrapped around the tree branch, the other around Leeland. Quickly, he shifted the unconscious boy's position as not to hurt him when he jumped down to the ground with an agile spring. Landing with a soft thud he gently moved Leeland and cradled him in his arms as he tapped him softly on the cheek. "Leeland? Come on wonder boy you need to wake up now." He tapped at the freckled cheek to no avail.

What was the green mutant going to do? Take Leeland back to the jet or help Julian not blow up half the forest and Leeland's friend in toe? He was miles from the jet and he had no way in communicating with the Cuckoo's or any of the other X-men. In the next meeting, he was suggesting com links for everyone!

It would take him at least twenty minutes of constant running combined with tree jumping to reach the jet, and that was without Leeland's dead weight at his back. But what if he was right and Leeland did slip into some form of diabetic comma and he was without any insulin. On the other hand, Julian's powers had been so unstable lately that he didn't like the sound of the outcome for the scruffy looking friend.

Taking a deep breath he pulled back his hand and slapped the other boy so hard that he was surprised he didn't taste blood himself. The boy woke with a sudden jolt, eye's not quite focused in his head as they rolled uncontrollably. Waiting with baited breath, Victor was surprised when Leeland's hands suddenly grabbed onto his x-suit and pulled him down with a force that such skinny arms shouldn't have achieved. With a wild lost look he searched Victor's face with quick glances before it dawned on him where he was.

"Victor?" He asked quietly and the boy nodded his head. "Ahh!" He threw himself backwards and out of Victor's lap, landing hard on the ground with his head cradled in his hands. "Oh my freaking head. And...why can ah taste blood." He licked around his mouth, feeling the raw bloody cut in the side of his cheek.

"Uhh that would be my fault." Victor admitted sheepishly. "Are you going be ok?" Getting to his feet, Victor held his hand out for the blonde boy who gave a slight nod of his head. "Think so." He winced as a jolt of pain shot across his eyes. Turning, he spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground before staring up at Victor. It was the first time he had properly seen him in his uniform. It was cut off at the arms but covered the neck. A vivid blue X ran down his chest and disappeared into his belt, which held an X buckle, surrounded by blue. "Leeland? Come on, we haven't got all day."

"Where's Brian?" He suddenly asked, replaying what happened through his mind. "An' where did you come from?" His mind quickly caught up with him as he stared in disbelief. "I'll explain along the way but you need to get up and get on my dam back!"

"Huh?"

"Move!" He pulled Leeland up non to gently and he stumbled to wrap his arms around the young X-Mans neck. "Now hold on." Victor warned and Leeland kept quiet, lest he say anything else to get him into trouble.

Well aware that hecould possibly had some kind of concussion meant he was racing against an invisible clock to reach the other two boy's. He wasn't sure what taking Leeland to them would achieve, but he didn't think it would be safe to leave him on the forest floor on his own.

Jumping from branch to branch, he kept his eyes peeled for any sign of Julian or Brian while also trying to keep a hold on Leeland. The boy's almost possessive grasp on his shoulders and hips had startled to loosen quite considerably. "Leeland?" He called over his shoulder at the boy.

The blonde's head jolted upwards, his eye's blinking in confusion. "Ah wasn't sleeping!"

Victor couldn't help a smile. "I need you stay awake and focused and keep a look out for Brian and Julian. Can you do that for me?" He called as he swung from one tree to the next, taking a running leap from branches when they where thick enough to hold both the boy's combined weight. "Ahuh." Leeland replied with less enthusiasm and more confusion.

"I'm sorry I hit you so hard."

"Hmm... S'okay."

The trees had started to become sparse and less clustered together. Up ahead, Victor saw the familiar sight of Julian soaring into the air on his board, quickly glancing around his person. No one else was in sight and that worried the young mutant. He slowed down his pace and concentrated on his camouflaging, allowing it to flow over himself and Leeland. They were not exactly invisible, but neither were they out in the open like sitting targets.

"Uhmm...Vic. Victor ah don't feel so good." Leeland's voice had started to become quiet and instead of a grip on his shoulders, he had started to slump forward.

"Come on then warlock!" Julian taunted, glancing around the forest floor for any sign of Brian. From a distance he appeared fine, but a slight black eye had started to form on his left eye. "Because this is really showing what a great friend you are-AHH!" A bolt of blue substance hit the underside of the board, but Julian gained control and kept a float.

"An' what would you know about it mutant!" Brian appeared from the tree's with blood running down his nose, his chest heaving. "You ain't got a dam clue, that' what."

Victor rolled his eyes; it was all starting to sound rather pathetic. "Geeze. If they start saying 'my dad is better that your dad' I'm out of here." He heard Leeland give a small chuckle somewhere near his ear. "Take me down there...Ah jus' wanna go home."

"Home?"

"...With you guys." With his head now slumped on Victor's shoulder, it was hard just trying to keep his eyes open. All he wanted to do was sleep and curl up somewhere warm but he knew there were more important things going on around him and that he needed to be awake for it to happen.

The camouflaged boy's made their way down to the ground, Leeland holding on with a soft grip rather than slumping across his shoulder. It took some energy to keep awake, blinking to keep his eyes open. "Think one of yah 'it me a bit too hard." He murmured and watched as Brian and Julian circled each other, getting dangerously close to the ground with their powers flaring off one another. With a roll of his eye's he tapped Victor to let him down.

One hand outstretched he closed his eye's and focused on creating that little ball of energy. It grew warm in his hands, a soft crackle of pale green light that swelled in size. Opening his eyes, he saw the bubble grow to almost the same size of himself, the same pale colour.

"What are you going to do with that?" Victor asked, still supporting the taller boy whose legs had turned to jelly.

"Errr..." Leeland wasn't sure and instead he took a gamble and sent the orb soaring towards both board bound boys. It landed in the middle of the boy's and upon impact exploded with an almighty shatter that rang out amongst the trees. The force of the bubble 'popping' sent both Brian and Julian backwards off their boards. Luckily for them, neither was high enough to be hurt from falling to the ground.

Victor and Leeland stared at the spot, the latter licking his dry lips and frowning. "Did it work?"

"Well...they're not fighting anymore."

They watched on as the two boys scrambled to their feet, looking around for the source of the bubble. When the dust settled Brian was the first to see Leeland, one arm wrapped around the green mutant and a sore bruise forming on his cheek. It looked as if he was about ready to fall over and sleep.

"Say something." Victor whispered harshly, lightly nudging Leeland in the chest.

"What-Oh...Stop being a prat!" He scolded Brian but the Warlock simply stared at him before he turned his attention to Julian. "And you stop showing off!"

"I wasn't showing off!" Julian retorted, his hands on his hips scowling.

"Like 'ell you weren't." Brian muttered under his breath.

"I heard that."

"Oooo he's got ears as well-Got any other tricks Mutie-"

"-THAT'S IT!" Julian started forward angrily before a loud "STOP IT!" came from Leeland, halting both feuding boy's.

"Ahm cold, tired an' ah probably 'ave a concussion." He said whilst looking over at Brian who had the decency to look a little sheepish. "Ah need to get back to the jet for mah insulin, so sorry if that breaks up your cat fight."

"Lee…" Brian started but the boy held up his hand and stepped forward on slightly shaky legs. The feeling of nausea was starting to wear off but that didn't mean that his head wasn't pounding or his cheek throbbing from where he had been hit.

"Brian. Jus' drop it, please." He approached his old friend who stood like a scolded child; arms folded for emphasis and his nose turned down to the ground. "You're my best friend, you've looked out for me but...enough's enough."

Brian looked up at this, both hurt and frustration in his expression. "Too right! Ah've watched your skinny arse since day one! It's either them" He looked at the two mutants boy's who hung slightly back but not out of earshot. "Or us." His tone softened considerably and dark blue eye's met pale green.

Leeland knew perfectly well what 'us' meant. Did he stay with the mutants who were trying to protect, teach him how to use his powers? There was also that glimmer of hope that he could find out who he was as well as what he was made for. Though Ms. Frost had urged him to stop with his digging he was sure that they could help him.

Or did he go home. Back to his quiet little village with Brian, his father still locked up. What if Brian was going to break him out, did he really want life on the run! It was an almost laughable out come but he made his choice and peered over his shoulder.

"It's them." He said quietly and turned back towards Brian whose face fell into nothing readable.

"Fine." Said Brian, trying not to grit his teeth as he raised his hands.

"You've made yah choice. We're not friend's anymore."

"Don't be childish."

"I'll show you childish!" The blue substance erupted from the Warlock's hands one again but Leeland felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him backwards and to eventual safety.

The blonde looked down slightly at the head of green spikes. Victor pushed Leeland behind his back gently, one arm stretched out as Julian came to his other side.

"Leave him alone." He warned. "He told you he's coming home with us. If you really are his friend, you'd respect that." Said Victor gently, his eye's focused entirely upon the smaller youth in front of him.

Brian watched with his hand's still engulfed as Leeland gently rested his hand on Victor's arm. His eye's flickered between his friend's and the green mutants face. The cogs working in his mind clicked together and the question he had earlier asked Leeland about "their name" answered itself. There was a long pause where he simply stared at Victor before finally stepping backwards. "Fine." Was his only comment before the ground crackled with the energy and he vanished in a flash of light.

Leeland stared at the spot where his best friend had been seconds before and words failed him. Every thought in his head failed him and turned to Victor and Julian with a slightly lost look on his face.

"Come on." Victor sighed. "Let's go home."

**TBC~**


	18. Temporal Reverse Engineering

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 28/09/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 18:** Temporal Reverse Engineering

The ride home was silent and almost uneventful. Ms. Frost was not pleased about the fight that had broken out between Julian and the warlock boy but the scolding could keep until later. What worried her was Leeland's quiet disposition. He had simply taken his insulin and had moved to sit in the back of the jet. It would have made more sense to her if he had been angry with her, shouted at her or to even have the good grace to scowl at her. He did none of those and it annoyed her.

Why did children have to be so versatile? Why could they not find a notable personality and stick to it? It would have made teaching them so much easier. She would glance every now and again over her shoulder at the tall form that kept sliding lower still in his seat. The third time she looked, the top of his head was completely missing from view but his elbows where stuck out at odd angles. That certainly couldn't have been comfortable.

"Go talk to him." Scott quietly said after ten minutes of near complete silence.

_And what would I possibly talk to him about? I'm surprised he didn't bite my head off as soon as he walked up the gang way._ She folded her arms over her chest and crossed her legs neatly at the knees, but the almost elegant pose did nothing to hide the child like scowl on her face. She was annoyed, frustrated and confused and she was reminded of why she disliked children so much.

_Well._ Started Scott, trying to think lightly on his toes_. I don't think we've got him quite worked out just yet. He's only been with us what, four-five weeks at top. We're used to the students shouting at us because that's what we expect. He doesn't shout at us and you worry that something's wrong?_ The idea was almost laughable but Scott kept any smirk or hint of laughter to himself.

_We've had his father locked up in a jail cell, and so far he hasn't battered an eyelid! And you think that's right?_ Emma's head turned so sharply that Scott wondered how it didn't simply snap off.

From the back of the jet, Victor watched his teacher through the silence. Over the past few years or so he had noticed when they were conversing without the use of their lips. The little jerks of their heads, especially Mr. Summers and the strange way they almost itched to use their hands. It meant one thing and he turned with a small sigh and slumped in his seat. Glancing upwards, he caught Leeland's gaze before the boy turned back to staring at his shoelaces.

"They're talking about us, you know?" He said quietly, still looking up at Leeland.

"Or me." Was Leeland's only remark and Victor nodded. "Probably right. Talking about how your sulking could probably be used to combat terrorism." He said conversationally with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"Ah'm not sulking!" Leeland replied with a scowl and purse of his lips to which Victor rolled his eyes and leaned forward in his seat. "Oh please, between you and Julian I don't know whose worse."

"I'm not sulking either!" Julian replied with an equal purse of his lips. It looked as if the pair of them had been sucking lemons.

"You got punched in the face Julian."

"That doesn't mean I'm sulking about it." Julian crossed his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders up almost around his ears when he slouched in his seat.

Victor shook his head and turned back to Leeland and arched an eyebrow.

"What?" Leeland asked with slight shuffle in his seat.

"If you're not sulking, then why are we sat in silence like a bunch of told off kids?" In Victor's mind, they had done good. Or as good as they could have done with the circumcises they had found themselves in. Circumstances being Julian's inability to listen to anything other than his own pompous ego.

"Ah'm…thinking'."

"What about?" Pried Victor, tilting his head to look up at Leeland whose face was starting to look more annoyed than sulky.

"Ah don't know." Came his almost tight-lipped reply.

"Well." Started Victor. "Then how do you know if you're thinking if you're not thinking of anything? I mean-"

"Ah don't know Victor!" Leeland shouted, stamping both his feet on the metal walkway in the process. A jolt of pale green electric shot from one hand to the other making both boys jump in their seats just as the plane dipped significantly. There was a scrambling sound at the front of the jet, several hurriedly pressed buttons and a steep pull back on the steering wheel.

"Leeland!" Scott scolded him from the pilot's seat, causing the boy to freeze with his shoulders hunched forward. "Your powers in this jet are banned!"

"S-Sorry sir." Replied the little voice as everyone attempted to straighten up and not appear as they had visited a near by roller coaster park.

Victor sank back into his seat and said nothing more, his head turned towards the front of jet. He felt Leeland shifting in his seat next to him and a small mumble of "Sorry" could be heard. He knew very well that the apology was directed at him but he was not sure how to take it. Instead he gave a nonchalant shrug of shoulders and decided against replying with a cold; whatever.

As soon as the jet had safely landed in the hanger, Leeland was the first one up and out of his seat. He knew exactly where he was heading too and left without a moments notice.

"Where are you going?" Emma called after him but the boy did not stop in his hurried walk towards the sub-basement.

"Where'd yah think!" He replied loudly over his shoulder towards the woman. She started to make her way after him but there was a gentle hand on her shoulder and she turned to look up Scott. "Leave him. Let him see his Dad." As soon as the words left his mouth, the lights in the hanger began to flicker. "And then he can fix the generator." Scott added, unsure whether to smirk at the situation.

"Boys." He turned to Victor and Julian, looking down into their young faces and questionable old eyes. "Go and get yourselves cleaned up. Debriefing in my office in half an hour-And Julian." He called after the impatient Hellion who had already started to make his move. "Go and see Josh about your eye."

"Like he wouldn't consider it an improvement." Victor muttered as the two began to make the way towards the livable side of the school.

They had walked half way down the corridor in silence when Julian finally decided to speak up. "Are you ok?" Was the only thing that he could think to ask. Victor's reply was a confused look and a nod of his head. "Sure, why not. I mean, it's not like you've ever not listened to anything I've said in the past. Why should this time be any different?"

"Hey! We got him back didn't we?" Julian replied with an annoyed tone.

"Yes but…that was his best friend Julian and we made him choose."

"No." Replied Julian with a shake of his head. "We didn't make him choose anything. That kid gave him his options and Leeland chose here, where he should be anyway." The boy continued walking and it was only when he went to address Victor again did he realise he was standing still and ten feet behind him.

"What now?" Julian asked?

"Say that was me and you, or you and Santo. Yeah, say you went off with the other guy's and left Santo feeling like nothing. That's what we did to that kid and you fighting with him really didn't help."

With a sigh, Julian rubbed at the back of his head and gave a half shrug of his shoulders. "What do you want me to say, who do you want me to apologise to Vic? Leeland made his choice, we didn't make it for him. He knows that being here is going to help him with his powers-Which by the way!" He put up a finger, a sudden memory floating back to him. "Since when could he make huge exploding balls?"

Victor shuffled from one foot to the other. "They're bubbles." He muttered. "They change colour."

"Wow." Julian sounded as thrilled as rain. "That's really lame."

"You only think it's lame because it knocked you off your high horse."

The other boy was about to retaliate but he stopped him self. Closing his mouth, he shut his eyes and brought a finger to his lips. He was not going to turn what was a simple question into an argument. Not in the middle of the corridor and still in his uniform which was caked in various bit's of forest and an eye that needed a really cold bag of peas on it.

"Victor? Are you ok? Not Leeland. You?" He tried again, hoping for a better answer than the half shrug he'd received before. Opening his eyes, he looked up at one of his best friends who gave him a non-responsive glance.

"I mean. He did shout at you?"

Victor couldn't help what came next and had to hide a small snort of laughter behind his hand. That was not exactly the response Julian had been looking for.

"Oh Jules, I'm not ten. I can take someone shouting at me and not taking it to heart. He's confused and pissed off and I annoyed him. Geesh Julian." And the green mutant grinned with a shake of his before starting off down the corridor again.

"Come on." He called cheerfully over his shoulder. "I want to able to get a shower without strobe lights." He pointed up at the light fixtures which had once again began to flicker on and off at impromptu moments.

xxx

Tony Stark was nowhere in sight. This was the first thing Leeland noticed as he took eager steps down the corridor. They had begun to slow down the closer he came to the room that he knew his father was in. Stark was either inside, what he could only assume was, the jail room or elsewhere in the mansion. He hoped for elsewhere, as he wasn't quite sure what to say to the man.

He was so nervous. With his heart pounding beneath his chest, he paced close to the open door but never made his presence known. However, his footsteps were so loud that he was surprised his father had not simply called for him. With a deep breath, he decided to face whatever lay beyond the door and took several steps forwards.

Standing in the doorway, he peered into the room. Eye's scanned around the strange plastic prison before his gaze fell on the only familiar thing he had ever known.

Sat on the edge of a camp bed, Jonathan did not look up from his almost unrecognisable position. Where was the tall broad built man who would make Leeland feel so small when he looked at him? Not through intimidation, no, never through that. But the man who made him feel like being the tall skinny kid wasn't so bad, because he knew whom he would grow up into.

But then Leeland remembered that this man was not genetically his father and something inside of him melted. Like a piece of himself had finally dwindled down to nothing but a watery puddle.

Stepping forward on light feet, he came up close to the plastic prison and stopped just in front of it. He didn't say a word, simply held his loose fists by his side and peered at the top of his father's head.

It took the imprisoned man several seconds to realise that the slim figure in front of his was not Emma Frost with her perfect, yet revealing, dressed body but his scruffy tall seventeen year old. Trainer laces trailed on the floor, his jeans caked in mud and his t-shirt crumpled as if he had picked it out of the wash basket…again.

"Hi Dad."

xxx

Emma was pacing the war room when Beast finally tracked her down. She was a hard woman to keep tabs on. Always had been- the sneak. She seemed worried, an expression that did not do her justice or rein true to the kind of woman she was. Emma Frost did not worry. But here she was, walking back and fourth attempting to give the room a new feature, like a giant drop into the floor.

The cat like man turned to Scott who was sat at the table, nursing a fresh cup of hot coffee. Emma's was left untouched.

"Has she been pacing long?"

"Only since Leeland ran off to his Dad." He commented casually.

"Oh good, he's back then. Emma I need a word."

"Henry, could it not possibly wait ten minutes." She made to walk past him only for Scott to clear his throat. "Leave them be Emma. Hank, you were saying?"

"Ahh yes, Emma. I need a word with you." Hank settled himself into one of the chairs, and placed a small USB stick down onto the table.

"Can't it wait?" Emma sighed as she took a seat, if only to stop Scott watching her pace around the room like a spectator at the zoo.

"Well it could but then everything could wait. The bills, teaching, eating-"

Emma turned and glared, her serene face taking on a well known frosty exterior. Clearing his throat Hank nodded his head. "No, I don't think it can. You see I've finally managed to run a diagnostic on Leeland's DNA. It seems having him out of the house made the generator happier." He made to put the USB into the port connected to the table.

"I thought you were having problems with the machine?" Scott asked. Nodding, Beast waited for the computerised keyboard to load in front of him on the table. In the middle, a screen appeared producing a see though 3D image of the doctors diagnostic. "I was, but Leeland leaned on it yesterday?"

"That was the problem?" Emma asked, but it seemed too far-fetched for her liking.

"I'm not sure that it was broken in the first place, no something stranger was going on and I was surprised I missed it. Well, of course I'd miss it but I'll get to that-" He frowned mid sentence. "-One of life's many little mysteries, rather like this gem information I've found." He motioned at the information on the 3D representation in front of them. DNA strands floated around, organising themselves into an ordered sequence that could be read by the Doctor with ease. "Everything is fine, despite his obvious health problems but then I stumbled across this." He raised his hand and pressed a finger towards the bottom right of the screen at the extra bit of information that should not have been there.

"What are we looking at exactly?" Asked Scott with a frown, leaning to peer at the little squiggle of information.

"An extra Y chromosome, which doesn't really mean too much. It does explain for lankiness as well as his lower IQ when tested against someone close to his age."

"This is all very fascinating Henry." Emma sighed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "But what on Earth-"

"Wait a minute." Scott held up his hand and turned his gaze from the see through screen and towards the Doctor. "I've heard about this. Doesn't having an extra chromosome mean a person is more likely to become a serial killer?"

Silence rang out against the metallic war room and Hank felt the IQ of the room physically drop. "No." He said simply with a frown before it disappeared into something brighter. "A miss conception and a miss diagnostic. What you're looking at is 47XYY syndrome, it's completely harmless to both the boy, and everyone else-" He looked at Scott as he said this with a little crease in his nose.

"Then why bring it up?" Scott asked, leaning back in his seat with a frown and a sip of cooling coffee.

"Because he was part of an experiment dealing with genetics. I think we've got this mapped out wrong. I don't think he was made as weapon per say, but something of a genetic science experiment if you will. The diabetes, this. He's a sick child."

"And with the right medicine, he's getting better. So where's the problem?" Emma frowned. It didn't sit well with her hearing about the boy as a weapon or an experiment. She had blocked that part of him out of her head for years and she was perfectly fine with that.

"The other week I told him to take it easy, that the drugs his father had given him would take time to work out of his system. By all means he should have been weeping into a toilet bowl-cold turkey, but nothing's happened. He's neither getting better, nor getting worse. Then…" Beast stood up and leaned forward, pointing towards the extra Y, which he enlarged on the screen and magnified.

"I found these." The magnification was deep. The image slightly blurred until it resolved it's self into an image the two other X-men could identify. What they saw made them frown, caused them to glance at each other and then the Doctor.

"Hank, are they nanites?" Scott asked with a puzzled expression as his eye's fixed upon the little metallic robots on screen. They were tinier than the chromosome itself. They appeared to be flat disks with a slight hump in the middle of what could only be presumed to be their backs. Spider like legs gripped at minute molecule matter.

"Yes." Was the Beasts only reply, his eyes never leaving Emma's puzzled, yet slightly worried expression. "They're everywhere. I don't actually have a magnifying lens big enough to pick them up with the aid of a human eye, the computer found them at random. These where causing the machine to malfunction. But I've had that blood sample so long that the nanites are no longer in working order-in this sample at any rate." He turned back to the screen and zoomed into a different section of the DNA, and again the nanites were present.

"From what I can tell, these were not injected after he was born, certainly not when he was older. They've probably been present before birth, encrypted into his DNA. But this is the bit I don't get." The two X-men men looked at the Beast with a look of puzzlement and wonder; there wasn't much that Beast didn't 'get'.

"This type of technology didn't exist until ten years ago, something doesn't quite add-"

Beast was cut off as Emma scraped back her chair and left the room so quickly that there was a sudden draft from the door. He wondered for a moment if he had said something wrong, but then realised he had most likely said something correct.

"Emma!" Scott called after her, hurrying out the room and hot on her heals. "Emma, wait!" He called again, catching up to her with a soft pull at her elbow, turning her towards him. She would not look at him and instead pulled her elbow free and stood facing away from him.

"What's all this about Emma? You won't tell us who the boy's father is and-I'm at a loss for what to do?" Scott brushed his hand through his hair, looking down at the wife who could make grown men weep into the floor by simply looking at them.

"I told you." She looked up, her bright blue eye's as cold as ice. Looking past Scott she saw Beast leave the room and he stood in the doorway watching the pair of them, never taking his eyes away.

"I told you all to stop asking me questions about that, about anything. I know as much as you all do. I was nineteen and out of my mind-I don't have all the answers!"

"But you do know something?" Said Beast simply, quietly as he pushed his spectacles up his feline like nose and rested his hands inside his lab coat pockets. "Now can we all act like civilised adults and talk about this? I need to know everything that you know if we're going to protect this boy from what ever misery made him."

Pressing a hand across her eyes, Emma gave a sigh and an eventual nod of her head. She knew perfectly well that she was being irrational but even she couldn't explain the knowledge she knew. Many things scared Emma Frost, she just didn't want to admit it.

xxx

Tapping the plastic, Leeland leaned in close with his head bowed. It wasn't that he didn't want to look his father in the eyes, he simply couldn't. Other than hello, there wasn't much he could say to the man. Oh there were certainly things that he wanted to say, needed to say but he wasn't sure how he would go about it without doing something silly and abrupt, like crying. Heaven forbid he show any kind of human emotion other than fidgeting.

"Where do you want me to start?" He heard his father's voice. For a moment his thoughts dwindled on why the prison was made from plastic and not glass or metal. He supposed there simply weren't many mutants who could control plastic. Strange.

With a simply raise of one shoulder the boy shrugged and tapped his trainer against the bottom of the prison. "Dunno." He simply said in a tone more associated with a scolding. But Leeland was not being scolded, but he felt the same kind of dread as being told off. That feeling of shame and anger all balled into one. "Sorry might be nice." He didn't mean for it to sound the way it did, sulky and not at all bothered. Raising his gaze he finally met with his father's eyes and he frowned despite himself. It seemed that it was not only Brian who was looking less and less like themselves.

"Yah look awful." Leeland told him with a slight purse of his lips and a tilt back of his head, surveying the man who he had been outgrowing height wise for several years. Instead of looking annoyed or insulted though his father smiled and nodded his head. The boy smiled in return and gave a shrug of his shoulders before letting out a breath he had forgotten he was holding.

They both sat on the ground, Leeland with his back pressed up against the plastic prison, staring out at the wall in front of him. Jonathon sat slightly to the side, his back to pressed against the plastic and he watched the ever changing expression on his young son's face.

"What ah really want to ask, is why yah never told me. 'Cos you'd think lying for eighteen straight years would get pretty hard to cover up?" He turned his head finally, resting his freckled cheek on the see through material. "And ah mean, they were some big exaggerated lies, Dad."

"I didn't think you'd want to see me any more, let alone talk to me like this."

"Pardon?" Leeland frowned.

"You're right, I lied to you but here you are, not shouting or angry…civilised."

The boy frowned, which turned into a scowl. "Ah can be angry if you want me to be. Hell I could shout right now, kick and scream if it'd make you feel better but it wouldn't make me feel much good!" It came out louder than it should have, his hands forming exaggerated and elaborate movements as he tried to contain any anger. Balling up his fists he shook his head before he pushed them into the top of his thighs, as hard he could until he felt a dull numb pain. "But…" He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm not gonna do that-I won't do that." He wanted straight answers, not cryptic clues that he had to piece together all on his own.

"So I don't care, just start somewhere and tell me the what hell is going on with me, you an' this whole weapon 42 business because hell if know, and hell if anyone here'll tell me?" The anger faded into a sigh and he closed his eye's, not entirely sure what he was waiting for.

With a nod of his head, that went unseen by Leeland, Jonathon began to contemplate on how he would approach such a question. Did he tell him the truth, everything he wanted and possibly didn't want to know? Or did he elaborate the truth once again?

"Someone approached me, visited my offices out in the states. There was a big payout for taking you away from the Black Womb project."

"Who?" Leeland asked quietly as he pulled his knee's up towards his chest.

"Someone who worked there. I guess they grew a conscience. Once Kwon and I took you, we realised we couldn't just give you away like we originally agreed. We were going to make sure you went to a good family, but your mutation thought otherwise."

The words floated over Leeland, his body numb and unfeeling as he tried to distance himself from what his father was telling him. He had never felt so unwanted in all his life. However, he listened with a quiet curiosity. There was no big revelation or anything that shocked him, just a strange feeling that it wasn't him Jonathon was talking about.

"So you kept me, did all those stupid magic spells." Saying the words sounded sillier then actually knowing they were done.

"Yes." Was his father's only response.

"And'the drugs, was that your stupid idea as well?" He turned with another scowl.

"Leeland, you have to understand-"

"No! No I don't have to understand anything! Why didn't you just tell me all of this instead of trying to hide it without me ever finding out. You think this hasn't done stuff to me-Look at me-"

"I know!" His father half shouted, still trying to compose himself but it still made the boy jump. With a startled look he leaned away from the plastic prison and took his gaze to the ground.

"I know I messed up Leeland, but I did it for you. To keep you safe from the-"

"The people who made me? Because that's the only thing I've got left. Everything I thought I was-who I was is gone. Do you know how that feels? To suddenly wake up one day and realise you haven't got a clue about anything…nothing, just this stupid power." And with that he motioned with his hands violently, backhanding his own thighs. Two dark purple bubbles appeared, crackling with deep red electricity that gently jumped from each orb and softly crept up his arms.

The colour illuminated his face and turned his pale hair a strange burgundy colour. "Ah can't 'ear anything." he started quietly. "Everyone's voice, songs…birds. Ah can't hear the birds sing an' nobody knows." His voice grew steadily quieter as he stared at the pulsing bubbles until he sent them away with a disgruntled shake of his hands.

"Oh Lee…" But even that sounded like someone trying to start up dial up Internet. There was no difference between his fathers fading Irish accent and Emma's educated American. "An' my head-" He ran his hands through his hair, snarling it around his fingers and tugging at it with both hands. "-hurts Dad, it hurts all the dam time an' it feels like it's gonna break in two." He ended with his head buried in his arms, his knees pulled up towards his chest but he did not cry. He was too frustrated to cry.

"Leeland…Lee, I didn't know." He heard his father trying to plead with him and with a sigh he lifted his head and rested his cheek upon his knee's. There was genuine sadness in Jonathon's face and Leeland knew that deep down that everything his father did, was for him and to keep him safe. For that, he would be eternally grateful.

"You're not my real Dad, but-" As soon as the words left this mouth he saw his father's face physically sadden. "But! But you're the only one I've got and…and I don't want them to take you away." Because deep down, Leeland was still a little boy despite being almost eighteen. And every little boy needed his father.

"Chin up." The broad man smiled. "You're safe here, the X-Men will look after you."

"But ah don't want them too. Ah wanna go home with you." Leeland knew that what he had said to Brian earlier was wrong. Given the chance he would have happily gone with him, despite certain feelings he was harbouring for a certain someone. All he wanted to do was forget everything and go back to how life was. But that, he knew, was impossible.

"Now stop that." His father gently scolded him. "I should have done better by you and I didn't. The X-Men will. You've got to listen to them, learn how to use your powers and keep yourself safe. Promise me that."

Leeland pressed his lips together and frowned but he gave a sharp nod of his head. "I…I'll try." What worried him was the sudden notion that he wasn't safe. That had not dawned him.

"Good boy."

xxx

Making his way towards his room, Victor's arms were piled with clean laundry. The de-briefing was both a telling off and a praising; it usually was. Julian was scolded for engaging in an unnecessary conflict and Victor was praised for his leadership qualities. It had left Julian muttering with annoyance but Victor was unsure how he felt.

He certainly wasn't proud, as he felt quite sorry for both Leeland and Brian. His thoughts still stood on the idea that he and Julian may have severed an old and good friendship. He tried not to think about it too much as he dropped off various bits of laundry down the boy's corridor. Nicholas had more odd socks than he could count. Carrying one of Santo's hooded jumpers was like pitching a tent and since Joshua had gone "all zen" the only thing he would wear was white.

Since Victor was four years old, all he had ever wanted to do was be an X-Man. When that opportunity finally arose, he found the experience very different to what he had initially expected. The x-men where not the most adapt teachers, or careers, he had ever had and he knew it wasn't an easy job. So laundry, as well as looking after the little ones, was his job. He was very good at it.

After dropping off the laundry, he finally made it back to his own room and kicked off his trainers. All he wanted to do was collapse on his bed and think about nothing. Unfortunately, all he could do was think about Leeland and what was going on with him and his father. He came up with the first scenario that there would be a lot of shouting and crying. The more he envisioned that though, the less he knew it wouldn't happen.

Leeland had a temper, that was certain but he also lived in a strange little world where he didn't know how to react to anything other than sulking about it. With a shake of his head, he pressed his cheek into his pillow and stared out across the room. He began to watch the sunset, wondering what the night would bring and the rest of the week.

He wasn't annoyed that Leeland had shouted at him earlier, contrary to what Julian had said but it did leave him with a nasty taste in his mouth that he couldn't quite shake.

Just beginning to drift off, he was aware of the shadows on the tree's spreading out across the carpet and then the eventual shape of a crouching person took form and Victor's eyes shot right open.

Gently but cautiously he sat up right and followed the shadow back to his window and stared with disbelief into the panic stricken face of Brian; the half Korean warlock.

'Let me in.' Brian mouthed before looking over his shoulder and turned back with a slightly harassed look. Victor simply stared at him before his mind caught up with him and he wearily crossed the room. He went to lift the window but paused before looking up at Brian with an arch of an eyebrow and slight smirk. Yes, he felt sorry for Brian, but it didn't mean he had to like him. Wasn't he a warlock? Couldn't he get into the building on his own?

Brian stared at him with an exasperated look of worry and Victor found himself rolling his eye's and opening the window. The warlock boy scrambled through, landing in a pile on the ground and Victor quickly shut the window and hastily closed the curtains.

"What the hell are you doing?" Was the first thing that left Victor's mouth. Folding his arms over his chest he peered down at the British boy who scowled at him as he rubbed his elbows. "An' a hello to you as well. Where's Lee?"

"What am I? His keeper? Down stairs with his Dad. What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like ahm doin'. I err…'E is my best mate." Brian sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck before getting to his feet.

"That's news to me. What happened to your big dramatic 'we're not friend's any more' speech?" Why Victor very nearly tapped his foot as he looked at the shorter boy who was trying to pull bits twigs and dead leaves from his very matted dreadlocks.

Looking sheepish Brian took a handful of hair near his head and gave a strange sort of shrug with an intake of breath. "Because…because ah'm an idiot an' ah overreacted. Anole was it?"

"It's Victor actually." The green mutant corrected with a purse of his lips. "What, you think my parents took one look at me as a baby and named me after the most appropriate reptile? Please, I wasn't born like this." He stepped backwards until he came to his bed. Perching on the end of it with his arms still crossed as he stared at Brian, waiting for some kind of explanation.

"Really?" Brian asked.

"Yes." The mutant replied through gritted teeth. "If you must know, when I was four I developed leukemia and spent a year in the hospital. One day I woke up like this and all traces of cancer was gone." It wasn't that Victor didn't like talking about when he was sick; it was just that many people didn't know. It irked him slightly when people did not embrace their mutations, without it he'd be certainly dead.

"What? Really? Ah thought bein' a mutant 'appened to teenagers?"

Victor stared in disbelief. "Wow…Just…wow-Look what the hell are you doing here and how the heck did you realise this was my room?"

"Lucky guess?" Brian shrugged his shoulder, but it looked as convincing as an empty gold fish bowl and a cat in the same room. "Locating spell." He mumbled sheepishly. "I need your help. See ah couldn't use any spells to get in here 'cos then tin man and his monkey army would be down on me like a hammer."

"Help you how?" Victor frowned and narrowed his eyes. He still wasn't sure if he could trust Brian, or if he even wanted too. His lamp decided to switch itself on and off, causing Brian to glance at it with curiosity.

"Just to tell Leeland something, an' it's pretty important."

"So important that you didn't think to tell him earlier?"

"Ahhk. You're as bad as he is! Geshh, he get's so pissy it's like being friends with a girl!"

"I don't suppose you have many friends who are girls." Victor commented dryly.

"Pff." Brian dug his hands deep into his pockets, glancing around the young mutants room. He peered at the band posters, and various actors Victor looked up to-most of them topless.

"Girls are for one thing." He said a little distractedly as he stared around the room.

"Your mother must be so proud." Victor made up his mind up about Brian; the review wasn't very promising.

"Look, ah just need you to get a message to 'im." The British boy stalked across the room and leaned down into Victor's ear. The green mutant went to shuffle backwards but Brian took a firm hold of his shoulders before whispering deep into his ear.

xxx

"That's everything." Emma finished, her gaze firmly held with Beasts. She was waiting for him to crack, to splutter the impossibilities of the information she had told him. It was certainly a lot to take in.

"I can see why you wanted to keep that to yourself Emma. Though I must admit it doesn't quite make sense." Henry looked back through the sheets of notes he had complied within the last half an hour or so, his genius mind at work trying to piece all the information together and to fill in the gaps. It was hard work.

"You think I don't lay there at night and wonder how they did it? My DNA, that's simple. I was young, stupid and almost certainly out of my mind. An unfortunate trait I kept for a while. Him-his father-on the other hand? Why he didn't even know he was mutant until he was sixteen, even then that's five years too late. Leeland would have been four by then and I know it doesn't add up but that's the only explanation I can give."

"Between people being bit by spiders, aliens aiding us with our technology or the displaced exiles team, this doesn't sound far from the truth….But time travel Emma?"

The ice queen gave a poised expression and leaned forward across the table, an elegant finger tapping at the Doctor's notes. "Nathan Grey-Summers, Nate Summers, Rachael Summers, Bishop."

"That's alternate time lines. Four different separate paths this point in time could eventually take. Leeland is…is-"

"By all manner of speaking, a paradox. He was created in the late 80's using technology from the early 2000's with the DNA from a man who died over ten years ago. Who would have been a twelve year old boy at the time, without any idea he was a mutant…or a father." She added with a casual shrug of her shoulders and settled back into her seat. "And that's why I walked out before."

"Because of the nanites?"

"Because there's more to them than meets the eye. I didn't know about them before now but piecing every little thing together-I'm worried Henry. Now I don't worry often, you know that. It often wastes time and doesn't do a thing for a person's hair or nails. But this is me, worrying." And Emma Frost did not like it. "It's not just _him_ Henry, it's that charming little alien he hung around with."

xxx

Peering through the doorway, Scott caught a glance of Leeland huddled next to the plastic prison with his arms wrapped tight around his knees. His father crouched next to him the best he could with the sheet of plastic between them. It seemed as though he was whispering something to his son, something that, judging from Leeland's expression, was not pleasant.

"Leeland?" He stepped into the prison room, causing both father and son the glance up quickly, Leeland quicker than his father.

"Come on, the generator needs fixing and it's almost time for dinner."

"I ain't hungry." Came Leeland's quick reply before he looked back down at his interesting trainer laces.

"Go on." Said his father. "Go eat your tea, I'll still be here after."

With a press of his lips, Leeland nodded his head and staggered to his feet. He took a final glance at his father with a smile in the corner of his mouth before making his way to the door, his hands pressed deep into his pockets and his shoulders hunched around his neck. Scott made to follow him, his hand resting gently on the side of his arm.

"Mr Summer's." Jonathon called and Scott turned, whilst still urging Leeland to keep walking. As soon as the boy was out of sight and ear shot, the X-man turned towards the mercenary.

"Mr. McCorby?"

"Please." Said Jonathon, raising his hand. "It's not been McCorby for almost eighteen years." He lowered his hand as he thought, resting it on the plastic in front of him. "You don't have children, do you Mr. Summers?"

Scott thought that was a rather strange question to ask, despite its appropriateness. "In a sense." Came his careful reply.

"The students?"

Scott nodded. There was no need to bring up either Nathan or Rachel. That was for an entirely different time when the idea of time travel didn't boggle the mind of someone who didn't know it existed. Though he himself had been rather 'boggled' the past few weeks. His wife had a child that he didn't know about and suddenly the boy was more personally involved than he would have liked. It wasn't that he didn't like the boy; he would have just preferred him without the added attachments.

"Then you'll know he means the world to me, despite what Emma might think."

Scott frowned and gave a slight shake of his head, a smile working to find its place upon his mouth. "Williams, I think you have Emma mapped out wrong. Underneath all that ice is a loving human being, I think she knows."

Jonathon couldn't help the small bark of laughter that came from his mouth, which puzzled Scott. "Oh Mr. Summers. I think it's you that doesn't understand your wife as well as you should do. She doesn't want to question me, she's punishing me. I hadn't seen my son in nearly 2 months and when I did it was behind a sheet of plastic, like an animal. She's angry that she made the wrong choice and now she has someone to blame." Jonathon well and truly felt like the unlucky goat, ready for sacrifice.

Scott resided himself, he knew Emma was not exactly prefect but he felt she had reformed. She was a good teacher, a good team member. Differences put aside, he'd wager she'd be a good mother despite her own negative views on the subject. "What's your point?" He asked.

"Watch her Mr. Summers, because one day she'll turn on all of you."

Scott left the prison room with a bitter taste in his mouth. But he had to reassure himself that he could trust Emma. That he loved her enough to see past the bad. One talk with a condemned man was not going to make him think otherwise. Was it?

xxx

Walking down the corridor, Leeland found that he didn't have to ask his way towards the generator. It was probably better that he did, so they didn't assume he was missing again, but he needed quiet. He needed to able to take his mind away from everything. It felt, as though he was watching someone else's life, a movie that he knew wasn't going to go well. The critiques gave it a bad review and a sequel was looking hard to push through.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and took his hands from his pockets. Gently, he rested them at his sides and felt a small trickle of electric power spill over his fingers. He turned and followed the annoyed hum of the generator causing him to scowl. "Ah'm coming." He muttered and began to walk towards the forbidden part of the subbasement: Cerebro.

xxx

"Are you positive?" Victor asked for what felt like the seventh time, and the Warlock groaned in frustration. "No, ah thought I'd just make it all up to piss yah of. Yes ah'm serious!"

"Tony Stark isn't like that though."

"Oh, so you know all the in's and out's of superheroes do you? Ah'm telling you what I heard was true. You can't trust people like that-"

"Like what. Superheroes? We're the good guy's remember."

"There ain't no such thing as good guy or bad guy. Everyone's out for his or own good, you should know that, right?"

Victor chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought. It was true, the idea of good and evil was as vague as black and white. They always crossed into a murky grey that was hard to either like or dislike. "No. There isn't such a thing as good or evil, it's how you choose to perceive it."

"Fine then! Choose to believe he's good all yah want, but he's not right-"

"Ok! Ok…geesh. Look we need to find Leeland and tell him, as well as Miss Frost and anyone else we come across. They're not going to like this."

"What if they know all ready?" Brian asked with an open raise of his palms but Victor gave a sharp shake of his head. "No. Despite what you think, they wouldn't let Tony Stark do that. Besides, I think Miss Frost is trying to take Lee under her preverbal wing. God help him." Victor made his decision and got to his feet, reaching for Brian and grabbing onto his wrist.

"What are you doing?" The warlock asked with a slightly harassed wide-eyed expression.

"You're coming with me. You need to make up with Leeland anyway."

"Are you always like this?" Brian asked but Victor only smirked before concentrating letting his camouflaging ability seep over the pair of them.

xxx

Leeland finally found himself on a corridor that he didn't recognise, which was strange to say, as all the corridors looked the same in the subbasement. There were no other rooms down the tunnel like corridor, just a giant metallic door with the schools infamous X. Rolling his eye's, Leeland made his way cautiously towards it, following the pulse of electric that had started to thud through his entire body.

It was a strange experience, neither painful yet not so unpleasant that he could not enjoy it. He realised the closer he came to the door, the more that feeling inside him increased and that it was excitement, adrenaline and fear all balled into one. Just what was lying beyond the door to cause him to feel so strange? Looking over his shoulder, he licked his lips and turned back. A curious smile appeared on his face and he hurried carefully down the corridor.

Once he was at the 'door' he felt his heartbeat quicken, it hammered against his chest causing his head to spin. It was exciting, exhilarating and possibly forbidden. He wondered how he would get in the room and gently pressed his hands against the metallic door. If it were like everything else in the mansion, it would be cybernetically controlled. Therefore he could control it.

"Come on." He whispered, coaxing the door to open. He could practically taste what lay beyond the door; it was the generator and more.

The door slid open, causing the boy to jump back slightly. The room revealed itself making his eye's wide and his heart pound. His fingers began to jump and dance with excitement. With a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure nobody was there, he stepped over the threshold and into Cerebro.

The doors slid shut behind him as light illuminated what appeared to be a gangway that stopped half way through the domed room. Leeland peered up and around at the metallic plates that encircled the room and he took small steps forwards, wondering how far down he would fall if he was to jump off the side.

Something ahead of him caught his eye and he felt as if it was calling to him. "Hello?" It was as if the machine was beckoning him forward and he moved without thinking.

A soft sound filled his head, making him stumble for a second before he straightened up with a hand pressed to his temple. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. A chorus of angels had erupted inside his mind making him forget what he was initially there to do. After hearing nothing but beeps and dial up codes all day for weeks, the almost human like voices were a welcoming break.

Stepping forward with shaking knees, he gently ran his hands along the platform device it front of him. The domed helmet felt warm under his fingers and he trailed down the wires and around the panels. "Shh. Ah don't need to use yah." He said quietly and gave the room a quick glance before resting on his knees. "I need to find the generator." He told the machine and a warm feeling pressed at his side. With a smile, he turned and peered over the walkway and into the dark depths below. "Down there?" He asked and without so much as a yes, he knew the strange machine was telling him the truth.

"But…it's dark down there." He frowned and pulled back shaking his head. As if answering his prayers, the machine hummed at him and the room brightened instantly. Leeland glanced at the platform and a smile worked into the corner of his mouth. "Thanks."

With a lick of his lips he took a deep breath and dangled his legs over the side of the gangway. He did a very silly thing of trying to reach the bottom without actually jumping. Stretching his long legs, he attempted to touch solid ground but when he went too far he realised he was not going to be able get back up and slipped. Hitting his back caused him to flail and he braced for impact.

It didn't come. There was a soft tugging at the back of his t-shirt and looked up and behind to see that a large cable had come to his rescue. Gently, it rested the boy on the ground before retreating back up to the platform. With a slightly nervous smile he peered around the underside of the platform and a grin spread across his face.

The room was lighting his way towards a small hatch in the floor. He followed the pale blue light toward the little door and knelt down in front of it. The first thing he felt was a wave of power trying to make him go away. He had found the generator.

He wrapped his hands around the handle in the floor and wrenched it as hard as he could. The door flung open and a torrent of swear words hit Leeland so hard that it knocked him backwards.

"OI!" He shouted, scrambling forward before sticking his head down into the hole, which, revealed a little room. "There's no need to be rude about it." He said with a scowl before lowering himself into the room and shutting the door firmly behind him.

xxx

"Wow." Brian's eye's scanned everything they could. "This place is huge!" He added in an excited whisper and Victor wasn't sure whether to roll his eyes or grin at him.

"Glad you approve." Came his only quiet remark as they moved through the subbasement. It had taken a great leap of faith and a large gulp of breath to run from the green mutants room and towards the elevator.

"We'll find Beast first, he'll know what to do."

"Can't ah just stay invisible?" Brian asked, getting used to the tugging on his wrist. At least he wasn't holding his hand. "You're not invisible, you're camouflaged. There's a difference, if they look hard enough they'll be able to make us out. And no, I've only just mastered using my powers on other people. The only downside is that I have to be camouflaged as well. Anyway-" He stopped mid walk, causing Brian to bump into him with an "Umpff."

"Why are you not using your powers?" The green mutant asked with an arch of an eyebrow that went unseen.

"Urr, they're not powers, they're spells. Which take a lot of energy to use thank you very much." The grip on his wrist loosened and he became visible again. "What are you doing!" He added with a harsh whisper as Victor made himself visible, hands on hips and a sour expression on his face "And you think doing that doesn't take it out of me _Harry Potter_?"

"Yeah well….You look like one of Spider-Man's enemies!" Brian retorted childishly but all Victor did was pull an un-amused expression and tilt his head. "That was lame." He replied before he began to walk away.

"Wait! Where are yah going?"

"To find Beast, you coming?"

Brian ran to catch up with the taller mutant boy. "Look, I can't use any of my spells while ah'm in here anymore. Tin man had this perimeter set in place to find me. That's why I need you…That, and you're sort of, I 'unno, close to Leeland." The dread locked boy trailed off at the end, rubbing at the back of his neck with an awkward shrug of his shoulders.

Victor stopped in his tracks, pressing his hands to the side of his head. "Why…" He murmured. "Look, all he needed and wanted was a friend. I'm just his friend. Besides…" He shook his head. It didn't matter and Brian certainly didn't need to know.

"Ah've been watchin' this place for t'past week, yah know?" Brian said quietly as they began to move forward. "You visit one of them graves an 'eck of a lot." He said softly but Victor felt himself bristle.

"That's none of your business." Came his rather sour reply.

"My Dad died…years ago…." Brian continued but trailed off before swallowing and Victor peered at him over his shoulder with curious frown.

"Sometimes ah wouldn't even leave the graveyard." He looked up then and held Victor's gaze and fiddled with the side of his dirt-encrusted jeans. "I'd pretend he was still there 'cos ah didn't want to admit 'e was gone, or that my Mum could move on."

There was a moment of silence before Victor's frown deepened. "Why are you telling me this? Couple of hours ago you where ready to drop Leeland like _that_?" He went to snap his fingers but thought better of it considering they were trying to be quiet.

Brian shrugged his shoulders sheepishly before rubbing at the back of his neck. "Ah'm quick to piss off-" Victor opened his mouth to argue. "But ah'm even quicker at getting over it." He continued before Victor could interrupt.

"Look. We could do this back an' forth all night but we need to find your teachers."

"And make up with Leeland?" Victor said pointedly and Brian gave a sheepish nod of his head.

"Yuh, that too ah suppose. If ah must." He said with a sniff before pushing off from the wall he was leaning against and disappeared around the corner. The other boy hurried after him but only to come face to face with the last person they wanted to run into.

Brian stood with his eye's wide and his hands above his head. Several SHIELD operatives stood around him with pointed gun's aimed for both his chest and head.

"Mr Borkowski, was it?" Victor looked up at Tony Stark, his own hands coming up towards his chest in surrender. "You've got quite a bit of explaining to do."

And with that, the power for the entire building shut down, plunging them all into darkness.

**A/N:**

- Serious artistic liberties were taken with Victor and how he mutated.  
- 47XYY syndrome is not to be confused with Klinefelter's syndrome (Where males have an extra X chromosome.)


	19. Normality Restored

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 30/09/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 19:** Normality Restored

There were several shrieks from the common room and one loud "Who turned out the lights?" from Santo. Someone scrambled for the light switch and clicked up and down, up and down but nothing happened. Everything was down, the lights, the electric, everything in the sub-basement. That included the security system. The doors to Jonathon Williams' cell clicked open and the mercenary smiled.

There was a scuffling sound in the corridor where Victor and Brian stood like prisoners. Victor tried to stumble backwards, wary of the other voices and bodies around him. Each one called for the same thing; the lights to be put back on or some variation there of. There was no point blending into the background when the lack of light was doing it for him.

Just when he thought he had moved far enough away from the Iron Man he felt someone bump into him with a soft thud. The body fell forwards and Victor caught a handful of rope like appendages in his hands. The 'ropes' went taut and he felt hands swat at him to let go. "It's me!" Brian hissed quietly causing Victor to quickly let go of the dread locks and grab onto something that didn't gross him out as much. Not having hair was one thing, but having it and not brushing it for years on end was another. Victor was not a dreadlock fan.

"What's goin' on?" The warlock asked in a hushed, yet slightly panicked tone.

"You know about as much as I do!" Came Victor's irritated response as he grasped Brian's elbow and attempted to guide him backwards down the corridor and away from the S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

Fortunately for Tony Stark, his helmet was infrared, allowing him to spot the two youths trying to make a quiet escape down the corridor. As much as he wanted the warlock boy in custody, he didn't want to be accused of running after one of the schools students. It was one of the reasons as to why he was taking his time with Leeland.

"Hank?" Emma asked, feeling a sudden tightness form in her shoulders. "Please tell me we have back up power."

There was a scuffling in the dark, the furious tapping of keys and the distinct sound of switches being turned on and off. Then there was nothing but the frustrated sigh of someone defeated.

"I'll take that as a no." She felt around the table, making sure not to trip over any of the chairs. It was certainly unnerving being plummeted into total darkness.

"Meaning…" Came Beasts voice from the far end of the room. His eyesight was far better than Emma's but it was no help in complete submerged darkness. "That someone has taken out the Shi'ar generator."

"Leeland." Emma grumbled, trying to make her way towards the door.

"Well, you did tell him to fix it." Came Beast's honest, if not slightly tartly reply. Emma gritted her teeth before pausing in the doorway. She was on the verge of telepathically calling any one with torches, or at least someone whose mutation could light up the corridors, but she stopped with her hand firm against the door.

"Hank?"

"Hmm?" Came the reply, closer than she thought it would be.

"Just how are the cell doors operated?"

xxx

"Victor." Brian whispered somewhere to the boy's side.

"What?" Came the mutant's harsh whisper as they hurried down the opposite corridor and as far away from Iron Man as possible. Actually, Victor wasn't sure which way they where going as he couldn't see a damn thing! All he knew was that what was behind them was nothing good. They needed to get to the staff.

"Ah need t'find Lee."

"Well that's going to have to wait."

"No! Ah really need t'find him!" There was an urgency to Brian's voice causing Victor to pause a moment, crouching around one of the darkened corridors. "Look," Started Victor. "Tony Stark is not going to take Leeland."

"So you're calling me a liar?" Came Brian's disjointed but defensive tone.

"What? What -no! What I mean is that he can try to but it's the law. He's not eighteen yet, which means Stark can't take him anywhere without the staff's permission." And as soon as someone drew up the legal papers, he'd be there until he was twenty-one. Victor decided not to add that piece of information.

"Yeah but he's only seventeen for another week an' then he's on his own."

"Well that means we've got a week to work with, doesn't it." Victor didn't want to admit that he was actually scared of the possibility of Leeland being taken; a swirling loop in a very silly system. It was OK giving him protection until he was eighteen, but then what? Did suddenly not being a minor make a person invulnerable? Of course it didn't. If anything, it made them more vulnerable. The X-men wouldn't kick him out, that was for sure but how far were they willing to go to protect someone they were not legally obliged too. Someone needed to sign those dam papers!

Victor frowned. When had he become so cynical of the very people he called family?

"Come on, I'm pretty sure the lab is this way. Once we meet up with Doctor McCoy, he'll know what to do." The two boys hurried down the corridor, trying not to bump into each other or the walls.

Something made Victor stop dead in his tracks, however. He shoved a hand forward, colliding with Brian's back. "Akk!" The warlock cried; reaching around to swat at Victor's hand but the mutant boy gave his jacket a good hard pull and brought him backwards. He dragged him into a small alcove and shoved his hand quickly over his mouth.

"What are-Hmppf!"

"Shh!" Victor hissed in the smaller boy's ear, one arm wrapped securely around his chest.

The sound of charging footsteps made both boys hold their breath, each as silent as graves. They were Iron Man's S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers, from the sound of the voices he didn't recognize. He wondered how they were able to move so well in the dark but shook the thought away.

Victor waited until the corridor had fallen silent before removing his hand from the warlock's mouth. Standing perfectly still, neither moved for a good few minutes before Brian took the plunge and took a much-needed breath. He pulled himself away from Victor and leaned over with his hands on his knees. It sounded as though he had just run a marathon.

"That was too bloody close." He muttered under his breath. Victor agreed and pulled himself out from the alcove. Now which way would they go? Follow the soldiers, or turn back the way they came and towards Iron Man?

"Why does he want you?" Victor asked quietly, making his way over to the sound of heavy breathing.

"Who, Iron Man? Well geeze Vic, let me think." Brian frowned. "Ah helped hide a wanted criminal for one, I'm unregistered and not planning on signing myself over-"

"Wait, hold up. Unregistered?"

"Ah." Started Brian, Victor was positive that he could hear the grin. "Summat ah 'eard on the grape vine. Guess what Mr. Stark is planning to do to all super beings on Earth? You either register yourself, your alias and you super name or he's locking you up."

"He can't do that." Victor replied. "They tried it with mutants, people won't stand for it."

"Yeah but…" Brian started. "A've got a bad feeling about it." There was something in the boy's voice that Victor didn't like the sound of. Like Brian knew something. "Brian, what's wrong?" The mutant stepped forward a little, his hand finding the warlock's shoulder.

"Nothing." The warlock straightened up. "Lets stop pissing about and find these teachers of yours."

xxx

The room was not big enough for Leeland to stand in. Instead, he sat crossed-legged in front of the generator and stared at it. It was a mesmerizing construction of cold steel and bright luminescent wires. It was cylindrical in shape, sat at the far end of the room. It was quite obvious that it didn't want Leeland anywhere near it, however the boy was persistent.

"Sorry." he said simply, his voice quiet, as it was hard to catch his breath. Being near the generator was starting make him light headed. A floating feeling had taken over his body; it made him feel as if he wasn't quite there. Like a bad trip or too much weed after an already intoxicating night.

The generator's colours changed to a deep red, but Leeland held his breath and kept his composure. Slowly, he started to crawl forward, the tip of his tongue working itself into the corner of his mouth.

"Ah didn' know what ah was doin'." The boy told the generator truthfully, his hand hovering in mid air close to the cylinder of steel. "Mah 'ead thinks one thing, mah body does a 'nuther. -Head hurts so much." He ducked his head with a frown, a sharp pulse radiated just behind his eyes. Gritting his teeth he shook it away before sitting back on his legs.

"Got no one to talk to really. Ah mean, I've got people but there's no one here like me." Sure, they were all mutants. They all had problems and talking did help but this was different. Leeland felt different. But didn't everyone? "Sometimes ah don't feel like a mutant, maybe 'cause ah spent my whole life thinking' ah'm one person but it turns out that ah'm not…you follow?" He asked, raising his head to glance at the generator. Its pulsating red colour dimmed slightly, paled in comparison and Leeland gave it a tiny smile.

"'Cause you feel the same, right? You ain't from round 'ere either an' you're alive!" That alone made Leeland smile. He was talking to a machine, and it was talking back. He knew it would look mad from an outsider's point of view. But this was how he was different. And he was noticing his difference.

"Ah didn't know that. So ah'm sorry if ah hurt you, and…" He chewed on the corner of his lip and edged just that little bit closer. "Ah know you're not scared of me. No one's ever been scared of me. A've been scared of a few people me 'self." He admitted with a small laugh. "But never the other way 'round. It's just-Oh…God, my head!" He gritted his teeth and brought his hands up to his face. Fingers snarled in his hair, pulled at the flyaway strands causing a searing pain to shoot over his scalp and down his neck, but it was nothing in comparison to the force at the front of his head.

It was an awful, pulsating pain, burning hot against the inside of his skull. Spots began to erupt in front of his eyes as he choked back the pain filled sobs.

Sometimes it felt like the wiring in his brain was wrong. That he was wrong.

He took a great gulp of air and lifted his head. Wiping the sweat from his brow he leaned forward again, his lips quivering. "Please…" He mumbled quietly as the generator pulsed in front of him. "You can…fix this. Ah know you can." He wasn't sure where the sudden thought had come from, but maybe he wasn't there to fix the generator.

Maybe, just perhaps, the generator was there to fix him?

xxx

"Any luck Katya?" Peter asked for the second time in less than five minutes. Kitty frowned as she leaned just that little bit further and swept her arm around once again. They were stood outside the elevator in the main part of the school. The only bit of light illuminating them was several battery run torches and Ben; a boy whose fire engulfed body made everything bright orange like a street lamp.

"Nothing." Kitty grunted as she pulled herself upwards. She had been trying to interface with the wiring of the elevator, hoping to jump-start it by phasing through it. It was a shot in the dark, literally, but nothing was happing. "Everything is off. We're going to have go down the old fashioned way." She turned back to Ben. "Gather everyone is the common room and don't move from there."

"But-" Ben started, unwinding his arms from their secure location around his chest. "What about you and Mr. Rasputin?" The boy asked, looking back and forth between his teachers' eerily lit faces.

"I'm going to phase through the floors with Peter, now-"

"No!" Protested Ben. "If you both go then we've got no one up here with us!"

Kitty turned to the boy and smiled at him, her hands gently resting on her hips. "Ben, you've got everyone else up here with you. Noriko, Julian-Heck, even Santo." She tried to smile away the look of fear of the boy's face; fear that slowly turned into an angry scowl. "The last time something like this happened we all got stuck inside a murderous Danger Room with Wing's dead body talking to us! And…and we had you." Ben let his arms drop to the side as he shook his head. There was no point hiding his fear, it was as clear as the fire on his face.

Kitty was a loss for what to say. She knew the students were not exactly over that but she didn't think it weighed this heavily on their shoulders -on Ben's shoulders.

"I'll stay." Said Peter and Kitty turned to peer up at him, watching the warm smile on his face in the glow of firelight. "Logan should be back soon. The electricity may be out, but cell phones are not."

Kitty nodded her head. If the kids wanted someone with them, she could not think of anyone better than Peter.

Rolling her shoulders, she focused before letting herself phase through the floor, keeping on par with the unusable elevator. Down through the metal structures and concrete pillars that kept the school standing. She wondered briefly if what she was doing was a bad idea? What if it wasn't Leeland with the generator like she had first presumed?

Well, whatever it was had separated her and Peter from the rest of the team. Although that gave her peace from Emma, she still worried for them all.

Phasing through the top of the sub basement, she came to land gently in a pitch-black corridor. However, she turned sharply when she heard the distinct noise of a gun being clicked back. A small bright light was shone directly into her face, causing Kitty to wince after the total darkness and shield her eyes. When she had composed herself she found herself looking up into the face of someone as big as Peter.

"Where is my son?" Asked Williams, with a gun pointed to the temple of an unconscious S.H.I.E.L.D solider. He held the man by the scruff of his neck and gave little regard for his condition.

Kitty frowned for a second before composing herself. "Mr. Williams? You're in a school with children, that gun will not help you find your son." She raised her hands to show that she was unarmed. Maybe it was to show she was defenseless as well, but that was far from the truth.

"They're mutant kids, I'm sure they'll be fine."

Kitty frowned, what a stupid thing to assume, she thought. Frowning, she wondered just how she was going to get herself out of such a predicament. She was, after all, intangible and bullets were the least of her worries. The slumped man at Mr. William's side was her concern now and not letting him die by a man whose emotions were dictating his actions.

"And what about Leeland?"

"He's different. He needs me."

"He's almost eighteen years old. How much longer do you think he's going to need you?" It was a question she thought about with all the mutant children in their care. The majority of them had not spoken to their parents in years. At least, thought Kitty, he cares enough about him to be this stupid.

The sound of running came from behind Kitty and she peered over her shoulder as two boys hurried into her view.

"Miss Pryde?" Asked one familiar green mutant.

"Victor! What are you doing down here?"

The question went unanswered as the Brian stepped forward, a frown on his face as he peered up at his godfather. "Uncle Johnny?" He looked down at the solider; who was slowly coming round with a gun pointed towards his temple. "You-you said we wouldn't do it like this."

"I told you to watch him!" The Irish man shouted, slowly losing his composure after so many years. Brian flinched, twisting his hands together in front of himself. "I did." He said quietly. "I tried."

"You didn't try hard enough."

Frowning, Victor didn't think that was very fair and a scowl formed on his face. "Hey!" He shouted, stepping forward as fists formed by his sides.

"Victor, get back." Kitty hissed but her words went unnoticed. Jonathon's attention turned to the mutant child in front of him. He was a couple of inches shorter than Leeland with a sure face and strong build. Someone born to be in charge, Jonathon could see that.

"He tried as hard as he could, doesn't that matter?"

"This isn't a schoolyard game, boy-"

"Then stop acting like the sore loser because you got caught. Geeze, the way Lee talks about you, you'd think the sun shone out of you." Victor shook his head, his eyebrows still knitted together with frustration. "Is this the way you want him to find you? Shouting down at his friends while you hold a gun to a man's head. If you were my Dad, I'd be pretty damn ashamed."

Jonathon peered down at the boy. Though a few sentences were not going to change how he felt -how he acted, there was some sanity to what the boy said. He let the man at his side go and he wobbled with uncertainty before slumping down the wall. Miss Pryde quickly moved to check him over; he seemed fine but a bit out of it.

Peering over his shoulder, Victor frowned. "Where did Brian go?" he asked.

xxx

"Scott!" Emma was tired of running around the sub-basement, in total darkness and without a clue where she was going. She had pinpointed everyone down in the sub-basement, even the ones that should not have been there. Leeland was still off her radar, but she knew for certain that he was with the generator. It worried her.

"Emma, Hank?" Scott called down the corridor before hurrying in the darkness with confidence. His visor was fitted with infrared, letting him see while the others grappled around like blind mice.

"I've tried getting the elevators to work but-"

"Nothing will work." Hank interrupted, glancing over his shoulder before peering back at his team-mates. "Until that boy has the generator working again.

"Should it really take this long?" Scott asked.

"No." Emma replied frowning. "But at least he's safe with it. I'm more concerned about everyone else down here. McCorby's out of his cell."

"Would he seriously try and do something?" Scott asked with an un-amused frown.

"Of course 'e would." The voice came from the end of the corridor and all three adults looked down towards the small warlock boy. His face was illuminated by a bright blue glow inside his cupped hands. It flickered once or twice and he tutted at it before moving quickly down towards the waiting X-men. Brian was shorter than they were; he was shorter than most people. However, he had come to learn that it didn't matter how small he was because he could still pack a punch like nobody's business. And he was just the right height for places not meant to be punched.

"If he knew what Iron Man was planning on doin' with his kid. Well, Uncle Jonathon doesn't have a lot of problems with shooting down soldiers." Brian shrugged, looking up into the illuminated faces of the X-men before nervously licking out across his bottom lip.

"Brian, right?" Scott asked and the boy nodded. "The one and only." He muttered before focusing back on the little ball of light in his hands.

"And just what is Tony planning on doing?" Emma dubiously questioned, folding her arms over her chest. Brian cocked his head to the side and frowned up at her. "You're the physic right? White Queen or whatever it is they call you. Well I ain't got no block inside my 'ead like Lee does so check away." He stared up at the women, familiar to him in an eerie way that he couldn't quite place.

Scowling, Emma glanced at Scott who merely shrugged. What could it hurt to check? "Don't move." She told the boy as she stood in front of him and placed her hands next to his temples. "Ain't planning to." Came Brian's reply.

"Or speak. Unless you want to be reduced to thinking you're a newly scraped carrot."

The boy gulped and Emma smirked. Closing her eye's she began to peer into the warlock's mind. It was not as if she could simply look in his head and see for herself, there was a lot of swimming around to be done. Even if the mind welcomed you to have a wander around, there was always a door that needed to be opened.

Emma found the door at the back of his mind; a collection of conversations. There were snippets here and there from people the boy had spoken too, or overheard. Parents, friends, teachers, brothers-It was all there. If she wanted, Emma could have peered further, found everything that made the boy cringe and use it against him. Maybe when she was younger…maybe later.

There! A memory floated up against her mind; it was Tony on a cell phone wandering around the grounds of the Xavier estate.

"…All this talk of registration is just that, talk. It won't wash with the public and certainly not with the mutants. Think about the manpower behind something this big, never mind the political agenda. It's wrapping everyone in chains…" Tony stopped; he wasn't far from the gravesite and gave it one sweeping glance before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm close to having Jonathon McCorby in S.H.I.E.L.D custody then it's over to the judge to decide. –Yes -What? No, no I know it was a stupid move, he knows it was a stupid move; he's put that kid on the map. The boy…?"

Tony sighed. He peered up at the mansion before giving a shake of his head that could not be seen on the other end of the phone. "I'll have him too. I've just got to make the X-men see sense."

Pulling backwards, Emma gently took her fingers away from the boy's temples. Her pale blue eye's met Brian's own dark ones and he blinked several times before scrunching his eye's up.

"Tony is planning on taking the boy." She said sharply, a note of displeasure in her voice.

"What on Earth would that achieve?" Pondered Hank as he placed a paw like hand to his chin. Just as he began to think, the boy in front of them thrust the glowing orb of light in front of him, illuminating his face. "Uhh, collateral damage perhaps? They're gonna arrest Uncle Johnny, if they 'ave Lee too then he'll sing to just about any job they throw at 'im." He pulled the orb back and close to his chest.

"Uncle Johnny's a proud man, and ah know he's proud of his work even if no one else is." Though Brian was not in the business of killing people, he could see it from Jonathon's point of view. No one could change that.

"But it ain't like 'e has to confess to them. But-"

"But if they hold Leeland out like carrot, yes, we get it." Frustrated, Emma made another quick sweep of the sub basement and located Jonathon along with Kitty and Victor. He was the least of their problems now.

"Not only that," Brian started as they began to move down the corridor. "But you could pretty much run the national grid off of Leeland." Emma turned to stare down at the little Warlock who shrugged his shoulders and peered up at the darkened corridor.

xxx

To fix it, he had to break it. Leeland apologised over and over as he took out wiring and a central motherboard system. Not to mention the new vast amounts of technology he first had to read and let his brain figure out before he knew what to do with it.

All he needed was the core in the middle of the generator. It was a tiny cube no bigger than a dice and the little voice in the back of Leeland's head told him that that was what he needed.

Sitting back on his heels, he peered at the cube and pressed his lips together. Taking a deep breath, he glanced all around himself at the bits and pieces and gave a soft roll of his shoulders. "Well…Ah've come this far." It would be foolish to pack it all away and give up now that he was so close.

Making up his mind, Leeland leaned forwards and timidly moved to press his finger up against the cube. Something took hold of him though, a force pulled at him, slamming him into the remains of the generator. "WHOA!" He shouted as his hand locked around the cube and his head snapped backwards.

A vast amount of information and coding poured into the boy's mind. It caused his pale eye's to roll into the back of his head. With his mouth partially open he almost gagged on the small pool of spit that began to form at the back of his throat.

Coding flashed in front of his eyes. A programming language that he could take in and absorb, understand at the drop of a hat. It moved through his body like information down a fibrotic cable. Purging through his system it burned like a thousand fire ants crawling across his skin.

As a child he had fallen into a red ant nest in the park and had cried for days about it. That had been nothing compared to sudden horrifying feeling that there was something burrowing under his skin.

With a gasp he tried to let go of the cube but his fingers would not budge. The pain caused him to double over, falling into the small pile of wires he had discarded to the side. They began to wrap themselves around him, tighter and tighter until he thought he would burst. A wave of pain hit him deep down in his gut before soaring up through his stomach. The hot taste of bile hit his throat at once and he began to cough the spicy taste of vomit from his mouth.

Then, the rush hit him and the room went white. At least, Leeland presumed it to be the room and not his vision faltering him or his eardrums finally bursting.

xxx

Meanwhile, in the upper part of the school, Nicky stood and stared at the light fixture. With his hands cupped around his eyes he peered up at the bulb that had begun to flicker.

"Hey." He called towards the older students mingling in one corner of the room. The students had been loud, each one demanding to know why they were confined in the common room. Luckily for Peter, Logan had finally turned up and not so politely told them all to sit in the corner and zip it.

"What did we say about talking, pup?" Came Logan's gruff reply but Nicky huffed and pointed up the light bulb.

"Not to say a thing unless the power came back on."

"And…?" Logan went on, his eye's still hidden underneath his Stetson. Just as Nicky was about to reply the lights in the common room and corridor flickered on. The students cheered but it didn't last long, as the lights grew brighter and brighter.

"Uhh Logan?" Shielding his eyes from the light, Peter stood and watched as the light grew brighter and whiter, almost blinding to look at.

"EVERYONE DOWN!" Shouted Logan and everyone in the common room hit the floor, hands pulled over their heads as the light bulbs around them shattered. Pieces of glass flew across the room from each light fixture and lamp.

There was a little cry of pain but other than that, the common room fell silent. "Ow –ow –ow -ow!" Came Julian's displeasure as he sat up with shards of glass surrounding him. He was sat in front of one of the tall free standing lamps that was all but now null and void.

The TV clicked back on and Santo cheered.

"Hey!" Julian cried, glaring at his best friend who turned his rocky head to peer down at the shard of glass embedded in Julian's arm. "But the TV is back on."

"Is everyone else ok?" Peter asked as he crouched down by Julian, taking his arm in his hand. It wasn't as bad as it looked and he could have avoided it if he had not been so close to the lamp.

"Mr. Logan." Someone tugged on the gruff mutants vest top and the man peered down at little Ernst. "I don't have socks on." She told him. She was trying very hard not to move from the spot she had dropped to the ground as it was sprinkled in little slithers of smashed light bulb.

Picking up the little girl, Logan glanced around him to make sure no one else was hurt or sockless. If the TV was working again, then certainly everything else had to be which included the elevator.

"Here." He passed Ernst over to Peter who wrapped her frail little arms around Peter's neck. "I'm gonna go check out downstairs -Keller stop being a baby." He added quickly when he saw the boy wince out of the corner of his eye. Josh had just removed the piece of glass and had healed the cut with a simple touch of his finger. Julian scowled.

xxx

Down in the sub-basement the same thing had happened. The lights had come back on, grown brighter and brighter and then shattered to everyone's dismay. Fortunately, the back up lights had come on and they were now basked in a metallic red glow.

"Thank goodness for that." Emma said with her hands on her hips and Brian scowled up at her. He began to pull shards of glass from his matted dreadlocks and moved further up the corridor. The adults lagged, discussing tactics and other nonsense that didn't concern Brian. He poked his head around the corridor and quickly pulled it back, hoping to god that the Iron Man had not seen him.

Turning, Emma frowned at the boy who had pressed himself up against the metal wall and was slowly inching his way towards them. Pressing a finger to his lips, he signaled for her not to speak to him, or at least be quiet. If he could go back the other way, then maybe he could find Leeland or at least someone who didn't want him in custody or shout at him in the case of his godfather.

Unfortunately a firm metal clad hand on his shoulder told the boy otherwise and his spirits sank. In fact, he could feel his stomach lurch and a small spark of dread told him he was not getting out of this predicament easily.

"Mr. Sier. We meet at last." Though Tony's words where not exactly full of joy, there seemed to be a sense of pride at finally catching his prey. Brian's shoulders physically sagged as he looked up into the eyes of the X-men. His eyes said two words: 'Help Me'.

xxx

Having managed to avoid the soldiers and Iron Man, Miss Pryde, Victor and Leeland's father stood outside Cerebro. The electricity was back on, that was great. However, Leeland had been with the generator a considerable amount of time, longer than anyone should have been with it.

"Is it because it's alien?" Victor asked, looking across at Miss Pryde with his hands planted firmly on his hips.

"It's not that." Kitty replied, eyeing Williams with his cocked firearm. "But most, if not all, Shi'ar technology is sentient."

"You have living generators?" Williams asked dubiously and Kitty nodded. "In a sense, yes. But the Danger Room was sentient at one point and that didn't end so well." She looked across at Victor who was chewing on the inside of his mouth, trying to work out a strategy in his head. "The generator is still sentient and what with Leeland's powers being technologically based…Let's just say I don't have a very good gut feeling about all this."

"We'll just have to go in there and get him." Victor decided but Kitty shook her head, one hand firmly on her hips and the other pointing at Victor. "You can stay put." She told him.

"But nothing's going to happen!" Victor pleaded.

"Victor-"She stopped pointed and firmly rested her hand on his shoulder. She peered at Williams before lowering her voice. "I know you and Leeland are friends. That he means something to you but please, stay put just this once."

Shifting from foot to foot with his cheeks a deeper green, Victor gave a half shrug of his shoulders. "Whatever." He muttered and Kitty took it as his word that Victor would stay out of Cerebro.

"Mr. Williams." She turned to the old mercenary. "Lets go get that son of yours."

Wrapping her hand around his arm, Kitty instructed Williams not to let go on any circumstance. They had to phase downwards through the floor instead of through the door. Now the power was back on, Kitty had to be careful where she phased; disrupting electrical wiring was not on her agenda.

They phased down and across and came out underneath Cerbero's platform. Williams holstered the gun as they peered around the dimly lit room. Kitty was the first one to spot the strange glowing spot in the middle of the floor. They cautiously moved towards the door towards the generator and Williams tried to open it. A small spark of pale green electricity spat out at the pair and Williams fell back with a thud.

"Son of a bitch!" He winced, shaking his pain filled hand before glaring at the hatch in the floor.

"That would be your son then." Kitty frowned at the hatch.

"That…that was Leeland?" Williams asked, shaking his hand as he got to his feet.

"Pale green electricity, yeah…that's Lee."

They approached the hatch with a little more caution than before and Kitty placed her hand up against Williams arm. "I'll phase through, there isn't enough room for both of us."

"No. He's my son, I'll get him." He looked down at the gun in his hands, made sure the safety was clicked back and handed it out to the mutant woman. Kitty looked at it briefly with skeptical eyebrows before gently taking it and holding it away from herself.

"I've no idea how strong those electric shots of his are. He could kill you."

Williams ignored her as he crouched down next to the hatch, a finger pressed into the soft dimple in his chin. Actually, it was a bit of gouged out skin from a botched job; he fell down a wall chin first and never spoke of it again.

"Mr. Williams, are you listing? He could kill you."

"Yeah." Pondered Williams. "I've had worse than a static shock from a seventeen year old." He looked at Kitty with tired grey eyes. "He's my responsibility. He's my boy. Emma thinks I've botched the job up but I've still got a few tricks left up these old sleeves." He gave her a none-too-convincing smirk and flexed his fingers.

"If it's any consolation, at least you've done a better job of sticking around than Emma."

Williams looked up at Kitty with a look of knowing and the woman simply smiled and shrugged in response. "Thanks." He replied. "It is." And with that, he threw open the hatch, marginally dodged a small zap of electric and disappeared into the depths of the sub basement.

The room was blindingly bright and certainly not big enough for the tall bulky man to stand up in. Shielding his eyes, the mercenary caught sight of what he could presume was the generator. It was located right at the back, sprouting wires and loose parts and looked as if it had seen better days.

At first he didn't see Leeland, and it made his stomach lurch in fear. Then a small bundle of wires shifted and he saw the sole of one of his son's trainers.

"Lee!" The boy was laid face down in the twisted knots of wiring and they were slowly weaving their way around the skinny body. Crouching down, Williams attempted to grab onto Leeland's ankle but the second he tried, the wires pulled it away from him.

Wires had now wrapped themselves tight around the boy and Williams couldn't tell if he was conscious or not. _Let him be conscious,_ he thought. _Please let him be conscious_. By his calculations of how long Leeland was stuck with the generator and the mishap of the day, he was sure the boy had missed one of his insulin shots. He prayed to a god he no longer believed in that Leeland was still conscious.

Cramp was forming in the back of Williams calves and the build up of static electricity was starting to give him small shocks here and there. Not life threatening and painful but a mild irritation that was throwing him off the job at hand.

No. What was he thinking? This wasn't a job. This was his son. Someone he had devoted almost eighteen years of his life to, and gladly done so. Williams smiled, knowing he'd do it all over again and just the same way. Well, maybe one or two alterations but something told him he'd probably just turn out to be the same skinny little stick with scarecrow like hair and the attention span of lighting bolt.

With a firm hand pressed up against the wall, Williams leaned down and wrapped a hand around Leeland's ankle and pulled.

It was a big mistake.

The generator let out an almighty cry, a feral sounding growl that froze Williams to the spot. His hand was still wrapped around his son's cooling ankle. The only peculiar thought in his head was; why is his ankle cold?

All at once a jolt of pale green electric hit the man square in chest, sending him flying backwards. He hit the metal wall with a crack and slid into a crumpled heap with a groan. The room wasn't big enough to hold such a large bulk and Williams was sure in his half-conscious state that his shoulder was now dislocated.

The wires shot out at him, hissing like snakes protecting a meal.

It was then that Williams heard a groaning and gave an almighty sigh of relief, despite his predicament. He watched through the blurring of his eyes as the skinny long body in front of him rose from the wiring.

"What…the?" Leeland groaned and rubbed the back of his head, instinct telling him there would be pain there. Though upon contact he found no pain. There was no pressure behind his eyes and OH! Didn't it feel great to be able to stretch his neck with no pain to his head? He grinned up at the generator but a spluttering behind him caught his attention.

Turning, Leeland's eyes fell upon the crumpled body of his father now being entwined in the wires. "Hey!" Leeland shouted at them, half in shock at seeing his Dad. They halted for a split second before a screech from the generator hurried them along. He tried to push himself up and found it to be near impossible. Wires had tangled themselves around his legs, holding him down against the floor.

With a grunt and a hard tug of the lower half of his body, he managed to struggle free. He scrambled into an upright position, looking between the generator and his father. "Stop it!" He called. "You're choking him!" He pressed his hand up against the generator and felt a jolt.

"_Stay with me_." A cool metallic voice whispered inside his head. "_Stay and be a good little Technarch, here where it's safe. I'll take care of you_."

Leeland squeezed his eye's shut and shook his head. "That's my Dad." He said before opening his eyes with a look of determination on his face. "An' you are goin' to let him GO!" He shouted the last word; a bubble of pure electricity forming around him and shot itself towards the generator. It reacted with a stifled cry inside Leeland's head and pushed him backwards, his head smacking the wall as he went.

The lights dimmed and the wires slowly began to retract from Williams' body. Normality was restored.

Feeling around his head, Williams groaned and sat forward. That was a mistake, his shoulder was certainly dislocated and he didn't like how his heart was now beating like a jackhammer. A shot of electricity to the chest; he was surprised he wasn't dead.

Looking up, he saw that Leeland was fine; wide-eyed and staring at the wires as they retracted back towards the generator. The boy could only look at it with disappointment and small amount of pity. Williams wasn't sure if it was for the metal cylinder or his son himself.

"Leeland?" He asked, the boy turned towards him, a smile working into the corner of his mouth. "Yah look a little squashed."

Williams didn't know whether to laugh or look pleasantly amused. He decided a smirk was best and pounded on the hatch with his good hand. Kitty pulled it open with so much vigor; he was surprised she didn't pull it clean of its hinges.

"Miss Pryde?" Leeland peered up through the hatch, a huge grin on his freckle-covered face.

"Oh thank god you're OK!"

"Ah'm fine, ain't too sure about me Dad though." Together they managed to pull Williams from the hatch through a succession of phasing and pushing. The old man being too proud to let anyone help him, that was until Leeland had grumbled in his ear about putting him in a nursing home early.

Once Williams was out of the hatch, Leeland placed his hands on either side and prepared to pull himself up. He paused however and turned to look at the generator. It was still calling to him, telling him to stay. That he would like being part of the heart that ran the entire school. Leeland shook his head, tried to block out the thoughts. How was it that other mutants couldn't read his mind yet a machine could wiggle its way in?

"Ah'll be right back." He turned to look up at the two adults, both of whom began to protest at once. Leeland ignored them, kept the hatch open and crawled back over to the generator.

"Keep out of mah head. Ah'll keep outta yours. Deal?" He knelt in front of the cylinder with his arms crossed over his chest. To onlooker it would have appeared that he was having a staring contest with something that couldn't stare back. At least it couldn't on a physical level.

Suddenly, something hit the boy on the side of his head, but when he turned to look, there was nothing there. It was as if a great hand had slapped the side of his head and he hissed in pain before it cleared. "Uhh." He scrunched his eyes up and tried to shake the odd sensation from his ears.

"Leeland? Leeland are you OK?" Miss Pryde called and Leeland could only peer at the generator, which had turned silent. "Err yeah. Coming." He called and turned with the notion that something had just happened; yet he couldn't quite explain it.

He pulled himself up and out of the hatch, closing it behind him as cautiously as he could. Then he jumped backwards, as if expecting something to happen; yet the hatch remained silent. The adults peered at him with a look of caution from Kitty and a look of "I've seen it all before" from his father.

It was then that the doors to Cerebro opened above them and red light shone through from the corridor.

"Kitty?" Scott called.

"We're down here." Kitty called back but then they heard everyone else, namely Emma and Tony. They were having what parents would describe as a discussion and what their children would call an argument. Leeland had three guesses as to what it was about and he doubted it was anything to do with the colour of the training uniforms.

Once they were out of Cerebro and into the crowded corridor, the cause of the discussion became apparent. Brian was in handcuffs; a small entourage of S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers surrounded him. Stood with him was Victor, glaring up at each of one of the soldiers. His glance caught Leeland though and his mouth turned up into a smile, despite what was going on around them.

"You're OK?" He asked and Leeland nodded. "I'm f-" Soldiers hurried past him and Leeland turned quickly to see them forcing his injured father down to his knees, ordering him to stay put. Their shouting made him jump; made him look at each of the adults with the frightened eyes of a child.

"Tony this is ridiculous!" Emma shouted above the noise of the soldiers.

"No Emma, it's protocol."

"For heavens sake they're just children."

"He helped hide a wanted fugitive-" He pointed at Brian with his metal clad hand. "And he's coming for his own protection." He turned towards Leeland who was now staring down at his injured father as handcuffs where forced onto him. It took him a second to realise who Tony was talking about.

"Huh, what? What did Brian do?"

"He means you, moron." Brian rolled his eyes.

"Ah know that!" Leeland scowled at his friend before it softened at Brian's own frown. "A'm fine." He added quietly before turing to look up at Tony. "You're an arse." He told him pointedly, glaring across at him. "My Dad's hurt. 'E needs to see a doctor." Leeland around now but there was no sign of Doctor McCoy, only Scott who was now quietly conversing with Kitty and Emma, who was still glaring at Tony.

"And what are you arresting Brian for? Ah know he's an idiot-"

"Gee thanks."

Tony lifted his visor to look down at the boy; he was four inches taller in his armor. "If he's lucky it'll be five years in a prison built specially for witches."

"Warlock!" Brian corrected.

"Your father is a murderer, a criminal. Do you know what that means?"

Leeland glared up at Tony. His were fists balled up so tight by his sides and his teeth were clenched so tightly that he was sure he would do himself an injury.

"Fine then, I'll put this into a language you can understand. Harbouring a criminal is a crime under both federal and state statutes and a person who harbours a criminal is an accessory after the fact. Your friend resisted arrest twice-"

"But did he ever tell you that 'e didn't know where my Dad was?"

"Pardon?" Tony asked with a blink. Stepping forward, Victor patted Leeland on the arm and smiled up at him before turning his attention to Tony.

"I think what Leeland means to say is, Mr. Stark, that you only have it on suspicion that Brian was ever with Mr. Williams. How do you know there wasn't another magic user, or another warlock hanging about and protecting him?" He questioned before looking over at Williams who smirked before grimacing at the pain in his shoulder.

"The boy was never with me. Must have come on his own accord." He said through a hiss of pain.

Brian tried to look as small as possible. It was all lies and the honest part of him wanted to make it quite clear that all the magic was his. That he was bloody good at it. However, the saner side of him was terrified of the thought of prison. Any prison. Even if it was built for magic using folk.

As much as Tony wanted Brian in custody, he was not prepared to argue with one of the X-men's students. He needed the mutants on his side, had to have them siding with him. These were the kind of stunts that guarantied no peace between them and an unwelcome rift. But Brian Sier was not a mutant and the X-men had no say in the matter.

_Pssst._

Emma peered over her shoulder at the surrounded warlock and gestured with a nod of his head.

_Can you hear me?_ He asked, thinking as hard as he could.

_Yes._ She turned back to Tony and Leeland, still arguing about whether or not Brian was in the wrong. _Though you don't have to think so loud._

_Stall 'im for me a minute or two so I can teleport out of 'ere. Can't let them know that, or they'll find some way of overpowering me._ Brian tried his hardest to keep as still as possible. He even averted his eyes from Emma to look back at his best friend who was still trying his hardest to stick up for him. When they were kids it had always been Brian calling the shots. He smiled. Leeland earned a few shots of his own.

"This…this is ridiculous." Tony raised his hands and gestured towards the adult mutants.

Victor had half a mind to punch the man, but a reassuring hand on his shoulder from Scott told him otherwise. The Cyclops pulled both him and Leeland back and away from Tony, placing them safety behind the X-Men's back.

"Stark, you're not welcome here. I suggest you leave-"

"The boy comes with me, Summers."

"And what legal right do you have over my son Mr. Stark?" Williams questioned from a forgotten little corner of the corridor. "I waived my rights as a parent of a mutant under the age of eighteen. Legal guardianship falls with the school." Williams gaze traveled from Tony and landed on Leeland with a soft, almost regrettable smile. Leeland pressed his lips together and unballed his fists. He let them rest against the side of his legs and took a deep breath as his heart skipped a beat. He felt woozy, as if he was going to throw up and cry all at the same time. It felt as if he head was about to pop of his body and float away.

All of him wanted to float away and never come back.

"That would have done if the school had provided the right papers, as they don't-"

The elevator lift dinged just to the side of them and the doors slid open. "Sorry I'm late." Came Logan's familiar voice. "But I had a bit o' trouble finding the right file." The gruff Canadian sauntered up the corridor, a crisp yellow file of papers clutched in his right hand. He handed them over to Emma with a grunted apology about the state of her office.

Emma flicked through the files, nodding her head and glanced up once at Tony. "I'll think you'll find all of these are in perfect order." She handed them over with a flick of her wrist. "Leeland Francis Williams is now under guardianship of this school until he's twenty one. I've volunteered to act as his guardian, his father agreed and signed the papers just this morning. And as his guardian you'll want to ask my permission to take him anywhere. I'm sorry Tony, I can't do that."

The corridor was silent as Emma and Tony tried to stare each other down. That was until a small someone cleared his throat.

"And that's me done." Said Brian. He quickly turned his head to Leeland and grinned at him. "Catch you later, mate." And with that, there was a shock of pale blue light; a clang of empty handcuffs hitting the floor and no more Brian.

"What the -Move out!" Tony ordered of the soldiers who had guard duty on the Warlock boy. They quickly moved down the corridor and Williams' laughter could be heard over the sound of their retreating footsteps.

"Where the hell did he go?" Tony demanded, pointing at the empty handcuffs but Williams could only shrug. "I've known that boy his whole life and even I haven't got a clue. Tell you what though. One out of three's not bad, hey Stark?" And Williams laughed, even with the pain in his arm and the bruise forming on his chest.

"Emma, you're making a mistake."

"No." Started Emma. "You made a mistake when you tried to take one of our own."

"Oh, one of your own now is he. Even after you had to get me to check? What happened to not being the mothering type Emma, or did the kid eventually grow on you."

They began to shout and argue and behind Scott, Victor began to frown. Suddenly the words and secrets knitted themselves together inside his mind and everything slotted into place. "Holy Hell." He muttered. _You're his mom!_

"Yes thank you Mr. Borkowski! You didn't have to shout it into my head!"

Victor was about to protest when he glanced out of the corner of his eye. Leeland was being awful quiet. In fact he had been very quiet for the last few minutes. When he turned, Victor's eyes became wide and he stared in horror.

The tall blonde boy was staring at his hand. It was wet and crimson, slick with blood. He was simply staring at it, eye's confused and eyebrows creased together.

"Lee?" He asked and it came out as a tiny whisper of fear. The other boy didn't acknowledge him, simply turned his head to look down at Victor for answers. It was then the green mutant noticed the red streaks of gore running down both of the boy's pierced ears.

"My ears are bleedin'." He said with shaking hands before his legs wobbled and he began to fall to the ground.

"Shit!" Victor grabbed him before he could smash his head on the floor and shouted for help.

From the ground, Leeland watched in what seemed like slow motion as people moved quickly around him. They were shouting, he assumed, though he could not hear them. He simply laid there, head cradled in Victor's lap as S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers pulled away his shouting father and the others tried to quickly deduce what was wrong with him as well as stopping the bleeding.

But Leeland knew. He'd angered off the generator and now he was going to pay for it.


	20. Obstructively Cynical

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 09/10/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter 20:** Obstructively Cynical

If there was one thing Leeland was sick of, it was waking up in hospital beds. It didn't seem to matter which country he was in or what building. They were all the same; uncomfortable. He noted how dry his mouth was, tried to lick out across his lips but found it simply exhausting. What the hell had he done this time to warrant such a lethargic feeling? The last thing he really remembered was the generator and a lot of people shouting before nothing.

Quiet. He remembered a lot of quiet yet still a lot of noise at the same time. He was pretty certain that there had been people rushing around him, wide eyed for a reason unbeknown to him. He went to sit up and found it harder than it should have been. Raising his arm, it was slow and unresponsive taking twice as long to reach the top of his head. Had somebody drugged him?

Finally he managed to sit up and groaned. He was groggy and drained. On the plus side, there was no pain in his head - it was the clearest it had been in years. That alone made him smile. So the generator really had fixed him! So why did he feel like something was amiss?

At first he assumed the medical room to be empty but when he looked down at his side he stared in puzzlement. Fast asleep in a chair with his head rolled back was Josh, mouth open and drooling. Leeland couldn't help the smirk or the attempt to shake his head; he half expected to hear snoring. Not that he could figure out what Josh was doing at his bedside. Looking at the other side was a more welcomed view. Victor.

He was sat in the chair with his legs spread out under the bed, his head resting on his shoulder. He looked as sound asleep as Josh did. If everyone had fallen asleep, then what time was it? Leeland frowned and gently swung his legs over the bed, resting them between Victor's as there was nowhere else to rest them. Leaning forward he gently poked the green mutant in the side of the arm.

"Hey Victor."

At first, Leeland thought he was being exceptionally quiet but two things contradicted that thought. The first thing was that the voice in his head didn't sound loud enough to have been, well, loud. In fact, it was if he could hardly hear himself at all. Strange. The second thing was the manner in which Victor awoke. It was abrupt, wide eyed and with a small shriek that Leeland could not hear.

"Geeze! Not so loud Lee!"

"Huh? I said hey."

"And I said don't shout!"

"Ah'm not shouting!" Leeland shouted contradictorily.

"Yes you are!" Retorted Victor. Now he was shouting.

Josh woke with a startled yelp mumbling that he hadn't fallen asleep.

"I am not! An' hold still." Leeland took a hold of Victor's shoulders and leaned forward, causing Victor to lean back in his chair. Their faces where mere inches apart while the blonde scoured the other boy's face and finally his eyes came to rest upon his lips. "Now talk, quietly but slowly." Leeland's loud voice had gained the attention of Doctor McCoy who came bustling out of the lab.

"I…" Victor started, drawing his lip in for a brief second before continuing. "You're shouting." he said quietly and Leeland merely nodded his head. He pressed his own lips together as his heart started to pound wildly away inside his chest.

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong with his head and he knew that he should have spotted it the moment he woke up. The very second Victor spoke for that matter,

There were no beeping noises to alert him to the fact that people around him were speaking. There was nothing but silence and the newly acquired ability of reading peoples lips. It was a form of communication meaning that he had probably known it since the second he woke up in first hospital. That felt like years gone by.

He slowly nodded his head and leaned backwards. Timidly, he reached his hand up and gingerly felt around his ears. At least, there would have been ears if it weren't for the medical gauze strapped across them. Reaching up, he found the other ear to be exactly the same and when he examined his hands he noted the light blotting of blood across the tips of his fingers.

"They haven't quite stopped the bleeding yet." Victor told him, but Leeland hadn't seen and was still staring at his hands. Glancing back at the pillow, he noted the two symmetrical splodges of blood and a clean space where his head had been. Bringing his hair round, he saw that it was almost pink, dyed by gore.

"Leeland?" Victor reached out and gently shook his knee. The blonde quickly looked up at him before jumping off the bed, albeit wobbly and unsure on his feet.

"Whoa! And where do you think you're going, young man?" A paw like hand rested on his shoulder, bringing Leeland back down to the bed with a soft thud. Beast stepped in front of the boy with both hands resting on his shoulders, his face grim.

"You can read my lips?" He asked and Leeland nodded, his eyes focused on the cat like mouth. It was shaped a little differently but the basic grasp was the same.

"Good. Then read these; you are not to leave this room."

"But I-"

"Williams, if your feet so much as touch this floor you will be _begging_ for 4am training sessions with Logan. Do I make myself clear?" It was at that moment that Leeland realised he had not seen all the sides of Doctor McCoy. The man was very serious, the most Leeland had ever seen. He slowly nodded his head.

"Good boy."

"Where's my Dad?" he asked as Beast removed his paw like hands and straightened up, his solemn expression gave the boy his answer. "They took him already, didn't they?"

"He's just had his ears blown out, and that's the first thing he can ask? Why isn't he pissed off? Hell, why isn't he even crying?" Victor waved his hands about in an overly dramatic gesture. Leeland could see him out of the corner of his eye but didn't catch a word he had said. He closed his eyes and witnessed complete solitude. The dark seclude of his eyes and the now silence inside his head.

What had the generator done to him? What had he done to the generator to anger it so much?

He felt another hand on his shoulder and he turned his head to see Josh, the same sad smile on his face. Yet Leeland couldn't return it.

"I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do about your ears. Nothing I can do now. It was weird…" Josh trailed off and scratched the back of his head. "It was like there was nothing there to begin with."

Leeland had the faint memory of a teacher commenting that all there was between Leeland's ears was cotton wool.

_13 hours previously_

Pandemonium, chaos, heavy footsteps on the metallic floor, but an underline of quiet. That was the only way Victor could picture everything in his mind. He was utterly focused upon Leeland, whose wide pale eyes were staring at the ceiling, his entire body shaking from shock.

The blood from the boy's ears was thick and dark, pooling in his lap where his friend's head rested. He felt somebody gently try to take him by the shoulders, but the boy refused to budge. Before he even had time to blink, someone grabbed him under the arms and heaved him upwards.

It was not as if Victor was heavy, but he was no fly away twig like Leeland either. They set him on his feet, and he faintly registered someone shaking his shoulder. But the boy could not take his eyes away from the scene on the floor. Beast was quickly checking over Leeland's ears and other vital signs before quickly scooping him up.

He stood with his feet frozen to the spot, knee's faintly shaking as a memory flooded back to him. It burrowed its way from the back of his mind and wormed its way forward. It was almost the same as last time and he could see it all over again, feel it all over.

Paras was dead. He had been shot. Then he collapsed to the ground and died in Victor's lap as the little X-Man curled himself around him and stared in disbelief. His chest became tight; his eyes began to sting. It was only when a feeling of pain shot up his arm did he realise he had been digging his nails into the bed of palm.

Shaking, he gently prized them open and watched as his own blood mingled with Leeland's.

Wait. He scowled. It was Leeland's blood, not Paras'. Paras was dead. It had been over a year since he died. So why was it happening again?

An almighty pain struck him in his cheek and when the stars cleared he found himself staring at Logan. The older mutants chest heaved as he took Victor by the shoulders and made him focus on his face. "Look at me Anole. Kid, focus!" Victor blinked several times before nodding his head. He was OK. Everything was OK.

"You…you hit me." He said plainly, a hand reaching up to feel around the offending area. It hadn't been that hard, a light tapping really. But it was a Logan tap and they were the worst.

"Go and get Elixir." Logan dropped his hands, but Victor didn't show any intentions of budging.

"Victor! Move and get Josh!" It was probably Logan's shouting that snapped him out of it, or the almighty pain shooting up the side of his head. He managed to move his legs and set off down the corridor at a fast sprint, his mind strangely clear.

He had to find Josh. Just get to Josh and everything would be fine. But like last time, Josh was nowhere near him to help. The golden boy had been too wrapped in his own dramas, his own deaths to deal with Victor. The green mutant didn't hold a grudge against him for that; in fact the thought had hardly crossed his mind. If Josh had been quicker, then maybe Paras would still be alive.

After very nearly slamming into the wall of the elevator, he slapped the control panel harder than he wanted to. It made him hiss in pain and he shook his hand to ward of the sharp sting in his palms.

The lift was taking too long. Why wouldn't it hurry the hell up?

"Come on." Victor muttered under his breath, bouncing on the tip of his toes as he tried to resist hitting the control panel again. He was not as calm as he first presumed himself to be.

"COME ON!" He shouted, pulling his fist back to punch the elevator. Before the strike came though, the doors slid smoothly open and revealed a rather startled looking Josh. The golden boy blinked as he tilted his head to the side. "Victor?" He asked.

"W…Where the hell did you come from?"

Josh slowly pointed at his head and peered at the blood soaked boy in front of him. "Miss Frost called me, sounded urgent."

"You're damn right it's urgent, move!" Victor reached into the elevator and grabbed Josh by the arm before none too gently yanking him out. The golden boy stumbled forward but managed to get his feet to move ahead of him. Gently, he prized his arm from Victor's vice like grip and peered at him with a look of concern and puzzlement.

"You're covered in blood." He noted rather obviously and Victor snorted at him with no hint of humour. "Whose blood is that, Victor?"

"Take a wild guess!" It came out louder than Victor intended, nastier too. Frowning, Josh reached his hand out and gently touched Victor's shoulder but the other boy shrugged him away.

"What happened? What am I going into?"

"I don't know. I don't know! It was his ears, they just started gushing - does it matter?"

"Of course it matters. I need to know what I'm fixing before I can fix it."

"You don't need to think Josh! You need to get a move on and do whatever it is you do. Why do you have to be so God damn slow?"

Josh paused in the middle of the corridor as Victor continued to storm ahead. A nauseating feeling settled into the pit of his stomach and he found himself scowling. "_Why do you have to be so God damn slow_!" He remembered that Victor had been crying when he had last said that too him. There had been so much going on that evening. Everything had happened within minutes of each other. Jay's wings, Laurie being shot and then Stryker's attack.

Of course he had been slow. Of course he hadn't noticed Paras dying on a cold step and he knew Victor had never forgiven him for it. But there had been so much going on. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't Victor's fault either.

With a deep breath he began to walk forward and took a firm grip of Victor's shoulders. "You should stay here."

"What!" Victor rounded on him, face contorted in annoyance but Josh's face was serene and quiet. He let his own anger subside and his features grew softer.

"Stay here or go upstairs. You're drenched in blood and it's going to get uncomfortable. I can look after Leeland. I'll be quick." And with that, he left Victor standing alone as Josh hurried down the corridor. True to his word, he was very quick about it.

Even if Josh didn't know his way towards the infirmary, which he did, the trail of blood on the floor would have led him there. What on Earth had happened to cause this much blood to come out of Leeland's ears? Josh could only wonder in fear and slightly morbid fascination.

He came to the infirmary and when he stepped into the room, it was clear the situation was not a good one. Leeland could not have weighed any more than a 120 pounds, and that was a long stretch. So why was it taking three grown mutants to hold him down?

"God damn it kid! Stop waving your ar-" Scott was cut off as a wild arm came flying out of nowhere, clipping the X-Man on the jaw. The boy looked practically rabid, his hair and face soaked through with congealed blood. Leeland kicked out with his feet, which were quickly pinned down.

Josh kept his gaze on the boy's face, noting his glazed over appearance. He was urgent to be anywhere but in the infirmary. Panic and shock had seeped through his bones and was now controlling every action. He almost looked possessed and Josh teetered on the sidelines for a few seconds before dashing forwards.

"Hank! A sedative would be really helpful right now." Logan grunted, ducking under Peter's arm as not to be kicked in the face by a trainer. The golden boy quickly grabbed the foot and Logan nodded his thanks.

"I can't give him anything until Josh has seen to him. He'd wipe any sedatives from his system." The Doctor spoke calmly as he waited for Josh to do his thing. Their entire medical supply for the past few years had been solely dependent on one confused adolescent boy. Now it was his time to shine again.

"Just keep him still." The three built up men tried their hardest to keep Leeland firmly upon the bed, but adrenaline can turn a skinny stick into a burly tree. Josh quickly darted his hands forward and placed them on either side of Leeland's head. At once his fingers became coated in blood, it didn't seem to want to stop. He closed his eyes and concentrated on only the good side of his powers. Tried to feel for cells, to knot the wounds together with his palms. A great shock to the hands hit him. Gasping, his stumbled backwards and gave a quick shake of his offended limbs.

"Kid?" Logan grunted just as Leeland booted him squarely in the chest. The foot had come loose and the Wolverine tried very hard not to snap the scrawny thing as he pinned it to the bed.

"I'm fine." He went forward again, placed his hands on either side of Leeland's head and tried again. The same result happened and Josh found himself backing away from the table, shaking his head over and over again.

"What's the matter?" Hank asked urgently, stepping forward. The boy peered down at his hands, steeped in blood and a clear sticky fluid. "I…I can't do it." It came out as a quiet whisper, his voice not quite ready for what he was saying. Why were his powers not working? What was wrong with him!

The boy on the bed began to scream frantically, his limbs no longer aloud to fly out due to the weight of the three men practically on top of him. "Now can you give him the sedative?" Scott called loudly, gritting his teeth. The Doctor nodded quickly, the needle ready as he came forward and peeled back one of Leeland's sticky sleeves. With precise accuracy, he managed to deploy the sedative and pulled the needle out just as smoothly.

Leeland began to calm, his head gently hitting the surface below. The X-Men holding him down stepped back, their chests heaving and the top of their bodies covered in blood.

The doctor moved to the top of Leeland's body and gently took his head in his hands. "You've slowed the bleeding down." He told Josh kindly, his own way of reassuring him.

"Logan I need cotton wool, gauze and tape." He motioned over to one of the cupboards and the other man complied with a quick nod.

"But I haven't stopped it." Josh took a step forward, looking over the scrawny body in front of him. Once the madness of the situation had calmed considerably, Josh was able to think again. It wasn't him, he could see from Leeland's ears that his powers where working. The large gush of blood had slowed considerably, but it was still ever so slightly trickling. He knew he couldn't stop it all without closing whatever wound was inside.

"Doctor McCoy. It…"

"Josh?" Beast took some of the cotton wool from Logan and began to quickly clean up and around his ears. They couldn't be examined without first cleaning.

"There was nothing there to fix."

The four men looked over at the golden boy, wondering if he was seeing the same scene they were.

"I think the blood on my shirt has to disagree with you, Mr Foley." Scott frowned beneath his tinted glasses but Josh shook his head. "I know bodies, Mr Summers. I know how to fix them." He looked up.

"There's nothing there for me to fix. At least, not anymore."

xxx

Victor chewed on the side of his lip, teetering on the idea of walking down the rest of the corridor. He counted the spot's of blood behind and ahead of him. There was quite a bit of it. Someone would need to mop it up, he idly thought. It was all he could do as not to rush of to the infirmary.

"Mr. Borokowski." A cold but soft voice called from just behind him, and he turned to see Miss Frost, handing a clean t-shirt out towards him. "You need to get out of that shirt." She told him plainly and Victor nodded, muttering his thanks as he turned his back and pulled off the top. It had begun to cling to his skin, and it left small indentations of the fabric on his dark coloured skin. Of course once he put the clean t-shirt on, the blood only rubbed off on that as well. He desperately needed a shower. However, Emma had other plans.

"Victor, we have to talk." It was not a request and Victor nodded his head, he'd only just remembered that he had figured out his teacher's little secret. Funny, what shock could do to a person. Rubbing his sore cheek he nodded his head and quietly followed after her.

It hadn't been very hard to put the pieces together. In fact, he was surprised that Leeland himself had not figured it out. But he supposed there were other things going on with Leeland, lots of things in fact. Besides, he was slowly coming to realise that Leeland was not the sharpest knife to have around.

They reached Miss Frost's office fairly quickly and quietly and when he was seated in front of her desk, the silence settled around them. He stared down at his hands before rubbing them together. They were starting to really sting, much like the throb on the side of his head. Did Mr. Logan have to hit him that hard? Did he have to hit him at all?

"Victor, I'm not one for beating around the bush. I'll say this once and I'll make it quick. You are not to tell Leeland under any circumstances about what you almost blurted out."

"You don't seem to overly concerned." It was the first thing that sprung to Victor's mind and he peered up at his teacher. She looked so small to him. He wanted to look at her and see Leeland, but he couldn't. His friend's eyes; though eerily pale, were warm. Emma's had always been cold.

"If there was anything to be concerned about I would have heard about it by now." There was an underlying tiredness to her voice. As if everything had been piled on top of her all at once. Victor rested his arms on the side of the chair as he sat in silence. What was one more injury to add to Leeland's ongoing list? If wasn't as if he was clumsy…maybe just unlucky.

"What if I say no."

"You won't." Emma told him, leaning back in her chair.

"How do you know what I will or won't do?"

The woman smiled at him, yet Victor couldn't quite place the emotion upon her face. Gently, she tapped the side of his head. "You're a smart boy Victor. A very smart boy and I can see you going very far in life. But this is your choice."

She could have denied it. She could have even wiped his mind. Yet her decision was instead to treat Victor like an adult. Like the other X-Men she had sworn to secrecy. It took a great level of trust and Victor frowned. He wasn't sure if he could handle that.

"I…I don't want to lie to him Miss Frost. I don't think I can do that. He say's it doesn't matter but…but he's desperate to know. If you would just…" But he trailed off as Emma leaned over her desk. With her palms flat on the desk, her attention was focused intently on Victor.

"Victor, listen to me. That boy has bigger fish to fry. The world is bigger than me and what you think of me doesn't matter. What he thinks of me certainly doesn't matter. I am asking you as one adult to another not to tell Leeland that I am his mother."

Victor kept his gaze with her but in the end he tore it away and focused on the rug beneath his feet. He shook his head. It was nice not being spoken to as if he where a child. That she was using the "you're an adult" technique but Victor couldn't do it. "Just wipe my mind." He told her quietly. He just couldn't keep this from his friend. It was wrong.

He wanted to ask her how and why? If Leeland had been an experiment like Laura, then what did that make Emma, a victim or a participant? He hoped it was not the later.

"And then you'll keep figuring it out, over and over. The mind is a strange thing Victor and I can't just change it for my own benefit."

"Then why not tell him yourself?" Victor tried not to whine at her, but there was a hint of it in his voice. "Why not just come clean?"

Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She stood up from her seat and slowly made her way around the desk and placed a hand on Victor's shoulder. "Do you want me to show you something Victor?"

The boy looked up at his teacher, unsure of what to do. He pressed his lips together and she made the decision for him. "It's not pleasant. It's something I've had buried deep down in my subconscious for such a long time now. Shall I show you?"

"Show me what?" Victor asked. Emma placed her hand on the boy's temple and suddenly, he wasn't in her office anymore.

_He landed with a rough jolt in what he could only presume was a padded cell. The brightness of the room almost burnt his eyes and he squirmed uncomfortably at the scene in front him._

_There was a girl, no older than Leeland himself with tatty brown hair that desperately needed a wash and a cold, hungry face. She huddled in the corner, her bare toes scrapping backwards over an over as she clung to her knees. A dirty white t-shirt and jogging bottoms covered her but he could see the cold fog out in her breath every time she took a ragged breath. Beaten black and blue, she raised her sky blue eyes and Victor gulped as she pierced her stare right through him. He jumped as the door to her cell opened and a women walked in on high heels and stern looking face. Her own dark hair was pulled neatly up into a bun but all Victor could see of her face were shadows and the white outlines of her glasses. Her mere presence in the cell terrified him._

_Quickly he looked back at the girl, her wide, terrified eyes as a scream filled her throat. The faceless woman stepped forward with a no-nonsense step of her heels and a bright white smile illuminated her face. It looked as if it would grow forever and swallow the very room whole and Victor began to itch._

_It was like a thousand burning ants had simply burrowed themselves under his skin and he couldn't figure out why. He glanced down at himself, his clothing now the same as the girls and when he peered back up he found himself in her position. The needle had been pushed neatly into his arm. It caused him to jump, kick out with his bare feet but they were caught up so quickly. His heel was twisted painfully before he was pulled roughly from the cell by guards he had not noticed previously._

_A scream filled the air as he clung to the cell door, fingernails digging painfully into the metal frame before an almighty pain struck him in the temple and he let go. Dragged away into the bright lights, all he could make out was the women and her shark like teeth._

Victor screamed, he toppled backwards off the chair and landed with an awkward thud onto the rug below. It partially cushioned his fall and he scrambled backwards, eyes wide from fear.

"And now you know why you can't tell him." Emma said gently, a far cry away from the scrawny little girl in the cell. Her eyes were sad, almost hidden by her hair. "Because he's the kind of boy who would never forgive himself if he knew."

"Ok! I-I won't tell him! I swear to God I won't tell him." It took all of Victor's courage not to cry as he tried to wipe the images from his mind. They were stuck there; burnt into the front of his mind as a reminder; When Emma Frost asks you to do something, then you damn well better do it.

Emma peered down at the terrified teenager as he scrambled upwards and almost ran for the door. She sighed as he slammed the door behind him through panic. Of course, she wasn't proud but it had to be done. She just wasn't prepared for that kind of responsibility. After all, sharks made better mothers.

xxx

"He's not lost as much blood as I first presumed." Hank said aloud as he patched up the boy's blood encrusted ears. "So a good rest up should have him back to normal in just a few hours."

Josh watched from the across the bed, his arms crossed over his chest as he tried to think. "Normal? He won't be able to hear anymore. I should be able to fix that." The golden boy was determined to be able to fix him but the doctor looked up at him with a shake of his head.

"Whatever happened to him Josh, it's irreversible."

"But… his inner ear. There's nothing there anymore to suggest he could ever hear in the first place." He shook his head.

"He couldn't hear in the first place." Beast told him sincerely as he began to gently wipe the blood from around Leeland's sleeping face. Looking upward, the doctor caught Josh's confused expression and he graced him with a smile. "At least, not in the way a normal person would hear something. He doesn't hear voices; he hears what he can only describe as nonsensical beeps. A random pattern of noise, if you will. That way, everybody sounds the same. That's how he translates. By taking in the beeps as a sort of code - which his mind decodes and presents itself as something understandable."

"But now he won't be able to hear the beeps. He won't be able to translate."

Beast shook his head. "Yes he will. If it can be read, it can be translated. In that sense, he should be fine." Beast gathered up his equipment and motioned for the boy to follow him over towards the sink.

The doctor glanced back over his shoulder at the sleeping boy and frowned deeply. The big soft side of him wanted to pity the boy but he had a feeling that Leeland was tired of that. Pity was what you gave a sick dog. This was a confused boy. You set them straight and told them to suck it up, it could have been worse.

_Yes._ Thought Beast. _He could he dead._

xxx

_Now_

Chewing on the side of his lip, Leeland listened as Josh relayed to him what had happened. A small knot in his stomach had grown in size and he frowned, uncomfortable as a feeling of dread pooled there. Really, he wanted it not to bother him. This was just a small trip up the curb. He would scrape his knees and brush it off. Maybe there would be a slight scar left there.

Yet he knew in reality that it _did_ bother him, but not as much as he thought it would. The idea of loosing a limb terrified him beyond belief. Was this not the same thing?

"Thank you." He whispered to Josh. At least he hoped it was a whisper.

Looking at him with a perplexed smile, Josh simply shrugged one side of his shoulders. "What for?"

"Trying." He smiled and the golden boy returned it with a soft shake of his head. The cogs had already started rolling inside the boy's mind; he was going to fix Leeland. Somehow. He glanced at Victor, still soaked in blood even with the 'clean' t-shirt.

Beast wanted to check over Leeland's ears again and the blonde sat with his shoulders hunched on the bed. Being poked and prodded was not something he had signed up for. In fact, he hadn't signed up for most of what had been dealt to him. He supposed though that was just life and he had to deal with it.

He kept trying to catch Victor's attention, make him smile or something. At least make him look at him with warm eyes instead of something he couldn't read. If only he could translate body language or people…that would have made life ten times as easier but probably only half as fun.

The doctor removed the medical gauze from his ears carefully and cleaned around the offending areas. There was a sharp sting where the cleaning fluid contacted with the inside of his ear, dribbling inwards to make him cough. He could feel his eye's watering as his head was tilted to the side and an Otoscope was slid gently inside. The instrument contained its own light source and magnification to give a view of the eardrum-which was in fact, still intact.

Frowning, Beast moved around the bed and did the same with Leeland's other ear before letting out a breath of annoyance, or perhaps it was simply frustration. He gently took a hold of Leeland's chin and lifted him so the boy could read his lips. "It appears that your inner ear in missing."

Leeland pulled a blank face. "Mah inner ear? Wass'an_ inner_ ear?"

The doctor could only look at him sympathetically, like one would do when a child had asked a precious, yet stupid, question. "There are roughly three sections of the ear. The external ear-" He placed his paw like fingers on Leeland's ear. "-The middle ear is where your ear drum is located. All of this is intact. There's no cause for alarm of infection but what's missing is what allows you to hear."

"But ah don't 'ear like normal people." Leeland said quietly and Beast nodded his head. "No, you don't. However without the cochlea, which moves in response to the vibrations coming from the middle ear, there is nothing there to convert motion into electrical signals. These signals are what the brain coverts to sound. Everyone's ears do this. Even yours. Well, at least yours did, but now without the cochlea there you can't hear the beeping."

Leaning back, Leeland rubbed the back of his head and winced slightly. He must have hit it on something. In fact, most of his body felt bruised and battered - as if he had been pinned down or had been at least thrashing for his life. He was still confused, as it had been quite a few years since biology class in which the only thing he was ever good at was dissecting hearts and sheep's eyes and only because he didn't have to think to do that.

"You need a new pair of cochlea's." He patted the boy on the shoulder, wondering when his mind would catch up. The poor thing looked more confused than ever before.

"Oh…Ok." But Leeland was trying to think. Trying to figure out why the generator would do that to him? His head felt so clear, there was no pain at all. He needed answers and Beast sure didn't sound as if he had them-or at least they hadn't realised yet that it was the generator that had done this too him.

Whilst Beast was busy over at one of the medical computers with Josh, the blonde boy licked over his bottom lip and glanced at the door.

"Victor?" Leeland asked ever so quietly. The other boy looked up from his stoic position near the bed. "You alright?" He asked and Victor nodded his head before giving a soft roll of his shoulders. He shoved his hands into his pockets and pursed his lips to the side as he refused to shake his head. Of course he wasn't OK, but he wasn't going to let Leeland know that. Nodding, the blonde gently and quietly slipped himself of the bed and took a quick glance at Beast.

The coast was clear.

"What are you doing?" Asked Victor as Leeland waited for the right moment.

"Ah've gotta be somewhere." Came his reply and Victor scowled at him, taking his hands out of his pockets.

"Get back on the bed Leeland." He whispered harshly but the blonde shook his head.

"Nope. Sick of hospital beds. Besides, if ah want the answers, then ah've dam well gotta get 'em myself." He may have not been the sharpest crayon but he knew for sure that all his answers to his questions lay within the generator. That meant returning and he knew he wasn't going to simply be allowed to walk out of the infirmary.

"Cover for me." He told Victor, a little smile working into the corner of lips.

"No! Get back on the damn bed." Victor hissed, grabbing a hold of Leeland's arm to pull him down but Leeland wouldn't budge. They struggled in silence for a few moments before Leeland quickly gave up.

"Fine." Said Leeland as he sat back down none to gently and Victor gave a sigh of relief as he let the boy out of his grasp.

"Then Ah'll cover for me self." He whispered firmly and before Victor had a chance to ask what that meant, Leeland had shot of the bed. For someone so skinny, he was quick footed when he wanted to be.

"Get back here!" Hissing, Victor resisted stamping his foot as he ran after Leeland. The boy had disappeared out of the door and around the corner. Beast and Josh hadn't even seen the two boys vanish.

Hurrying down the corridor, Leeland avoided little splatters of blood on the ground, which he could only assume was his own. He'd have to find a mop when he was done or someone was going to slip and do him or herself an injury. There was a quick patter of feet behind him and he glanced over his shoulder to see Victor fast on his heels. He gulped and tried to slow down, knowing full well that Victor was faster than him. Though it didn't quite work and the boy stuck one foot over the other, lost his balance and promptly tripped over.

Or at least he would have tripped over if it weren't for the mighty tackling he received from Victor. The sturdier mutant boy practically threw himself at the blonde and they landed in a not so dignified heap on the floor.

Leeland groaned as the wind was knocked out of him and a pair of arms firmly wrapped themselves around his waist. He felt himself being heaved upwards none to gently and when he dared to open his eyes, he found himself staring up into Victor's angry face. The green mutant moved his arms from his waist and bunched his fists up in the boy's blood soaked jumper. He was crouched over him with Leeland's legs spread out painfully full length in front of him and between Victor's own legs.

"What do you think you're doing? You stupid, _stupid_ idiot. When someone tells you to stop - damn well stop!" He shook him, as if to make his point that little bit clearer. Going to pull him upwards, he struggled due to Leeland straining backwards trying to get up and away from the direction Victor was pulling him.

"Stop-ukk-struggling!" Victor grunted as he tried to pull him upwards but Leeland twisted in his grip and pushed out with his own hands. "Victor! Get offa me!"

They struggled in near silence for a few moments, Leeland trying to get up and away and Victor pulling him backwards. Slipping, the green mutant fell from his crouching position and landed with his knee's either side of Leeland's hips. The boy beneath him grunted and fell backwards. Luckily, his shoulders hit the metal ground instead of his head and an awkward silence filled the air.

Staring at each other, an unruly blush spread across Leeland's pale nose. He peered down at himself and at Victor straddling his hips in the middle of the corridor. The other boy still had his hands bunched up in his jumper.

"Victor? Victor let go." He leaned up and rested on one elbow while his other hand gently prized at the boy's fingers. And Victor let go with a huff, getting up so quickly that Leeland was surprised he didn't go dizzy. He watched him as he dusted himself down and scowled down at the blonde.

"We're going back to the infirmary. So get up." He told him firmly but Leeland shook his head stubbornly. "You can, but ah'm goin' to the generator."

"What the hell for?"

"'Cos." Leeland got to his feet and rubbed at his shoulders. "It hit me…Ah think. When ah was in there, ah sort of shouted at it and it 'it me around the head. Kinda putting two and two together 'ere. Not sure if I'm getting the right sum but I'm pretty sure that's the reason for my ears."

Victor looked at him as if he had lost it but Leeland looked so determined. His hair was a scarecrow like mess, pale yellow with streaks of pink from the blood. The green eyes stared down at him without scowl or annoyance, only simple and stubborn determination.

"You're really sure about this…aren't you?" He asked and Leeland gave a great nod of his head.

Looking over his shoulder, Victor gnawed on his bottom lip and glanced down the corridor towards the infirmary. He wondered what had engrossed both Josh and the Doctor for them not to notice that they had vanished. With a groan, he closed his eyes and shook his head. "Fine…fine." He turned and shooed at Leeland with his hands and the blonde couldn't have looked happier.

"But I swear to _God_ Leeland Williams, if you get in any more trouble or hurt then I'm going to smack you from here to Chicago. You got it?" He pointed a sturdy finger up at the taller mutant and the boy gulped before a bright shining grin filled his face. Victor faltered for a moment - the woman's smile flashing before him but he quickly closed his eyes. He screwed them up tight and told the image to kindly knock it off before he opened them with a tired frown.

"Ah owe you." Said Leeland.

"Damn well you do blondie, so get moving."

They quickly headed off down the corridor together. Victor sprinted when they came closer to Cerebro on the account of Leeland dashing ahead. Together, they came towards the doors to Cerebro and Victor had an unsettling sense of déjà vu.

"Leeland."

"Yeah."

"What happens if we go in there, and it happens all over again?"

"What 'appens?" Asked Leeland and Victor hit his arm before shaking his head at him. "Your ear you- Oh never mind." He shook his head and turned back towards the door. "Come on, let's just get it over with."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Asked Leeland as he placed his hand on the door and coaxed it open with a gentle push of his powers. He peered down at the green mutant who pursed his lips to the side before giving a skeptical raise of his eyebrow.

"Would you?" Victor asked.

"Hmm." Leeland pondered as the door to Cerebro gently slid open revealing its cold metal and blue hues. "Ah suppose not."

xxx

Back in the infirmary Beast was busy going over the correct measurements needed for Leeland's cochlear implants. It certainly wasn't going to be a walk in the park; however, it was the only way they were going to get him to hear again. Not that the Doctor could understand why they were missing in the first place. Perhaps something had happened when he was dealing with the generator but he waved that from his mind.

It was going to be tricky. The doctor had never performed the operation on someone whose hearing abilities were so unique. He would need outside information and possibly help on this. Perhaps Forge could be of some use? After all, modifying technology for the human body was something of the mutant's speciality.

He glanced over at Josh, watching as he scrubbed dried blood from his hands and gave a small shake of his head. The boy had fallen asleep next to Leeland with it still caked on his arms. Sometimes the good doctor wondered if the boy tried too hard. Compensating for situations he hadn't been able to handle in the past. Certainly none of it was his fault, but since the attack the year before there had been such a dramatic change in his personality…it was unnerving.

Speaking of unnerving. The good doctor was less than pleased with how much trouble Leeland kept getting himself into. They were supposed to be protecting him and so far he'd been drugged, kidnapped (albeit, by his own friend) and now his ears. He was starting to wonder if becoming an advocate for children wrapped in cotton wool was really such a bad idea. At least that way you could keep them nicely stacked in the cupboard and the only way you could hurt them was if they fell out.

With a shake of his head, he turned towards the bed where he had told Leeland to stay put. A tiny growl came to his throat and Josh peered up at him before he too looked over at the bed.

"He left…didn't he?"

Josh didn't want to say that it looked that way, but it really did. Instead he chewed on the corner of his lip. "Maybe he went he to use the bathroom?"

"And maybe I have gullible shaved into my eyebrows!"

Quickly drying off his hands, Josh headed after Beast who very nearly stormed from the infirmary but kept his stomping as reasonable as possible. He looked one way, then the other and followed the splatter of dried blood on the floor. Why on earth hadn't it been mopped up!

xxx

Meanwhile, in Cerebro, Victor was starting to wonder whether it had been such a good idea to let Leeland come back to the generator. However, the blonde had such a determined look on his face.

Leaning around so he could read his lips, Victor asked how they were actually going to get inside.

"That's easy." Said Leeland and he held out his hand allowing a small stream of pale green electric to gently flow from his outstretched fingers. It trickled downwards, pushed itself under the little hatch before bursting it open.

"Didn't know you could do that." Victor muttered as he watched the stream of electricity but Leeland hadn't heard him.

Taking a deep breath, Leeland stepped forward. "Wish me luck."

"What? Whoa-whoa-whoa! You're not going down there on your own." Victor took his arm and squeezed it tight. Raising his other hand, Leeland patted Victor's vice like grip. "It's ok. Ah know what ahm doing this time."

"Doesn't mean you should go alone." Victor said firmly and he eyed the opening to the generator suspiciously.

"It's fine, really. Though ah should warn you about the puke."

"Puke?"

"Yeah..uhh." Leeland rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "Kinda upchucked earlier and well…Ah've not really had chance to clean it up."

Victor looked at him with a slightly horrified expression before releasing his death like grip and gently shoving him with his hands. "Just get down there, but I'm coming in after you."

"Ok, ok geeze. Just stop shoving."

Victor watched as Leeland lowered himself into the hatchway and ducked under what Victor could only think of as the ceiling to the room. He came in after, his legs dangling down into the hatch, as there really wasn't that much room for him to follow. Ducking his head down, he watched with his mouth slightly agape as the other boy sat in front of the generator calm and collected. He was pretty sure that the generator was humming, but he couldn't quite be sure.

"Me again." Started Leeland. "An' if you lay a single hand…wire-hand thing on Victor then ah'll never forgive you." Was the second thing that left the blondes mouth and a strange knot appeared in Victor's stomach. It was tight, unpleasant and wonderful at the same time.

"Do we have an understanding?" Leeland asked the cylinder very seriously and Victor realised it was the most serious he had ever seen him. With that in mind, he kept a firm grip on the hatch just in case during Leeland's mature streak he did something unbelievably stupid.

Letting out a sigh of breath, Leeland's shoulders relaxed. He rested the palms of his hands on the flat surface of his thighs before peering back up at the cylinder. "What 'ave you done to my ears?" He asked it. From behind him, Victor wondered how on Earth he would get his answers. But neither of them had to worry about the answers being received. They were loud and they were clear.

A burst of energy shot out from the cylinder and Leeland gasped as he ducked, throwing his arms over his head. Victor grunted behind him but he couldn't hear it. He whirled around to see where the blast had hit just in time to see Victor slump forward in the hatch with his hand gripping his chest. The blonde shoved his arms out to catch him and they both landed in awkward heap inside the tiny room. Wrapping his arms around Victor, Leeland pulled him into his lap before turning back to the generator with confused and angry eyes.

"Ah…Ah told you not to 'urt him!" He shouted. "Why…why would you do that?" He asked, voice hitching slightly as he ran a hand feverishly over Victor's forehead desperately wondering if he was OK. Oh God, he hoped he was OK. He would never forgive himself if there were now something wrong with Victor or if the generator had hurt him in any way.

He glared back at the silent generator whose bright vibrant glow had dulled considerably. "I. Hate. You!" He hissed at it, taking great care to pronounce each word correctly and without the slurred grip of his accent.

Victor stirred beneath him and Leeland let out a mighty sigh or relief. "You're OK? Victor you're OK!" He grinned like an idiot as he leaned over the other mutant boy but the happy feeling didn't last long. The boy's eyes shot open and the same glow of the generator circled his usually dark green eyes.

"Huh?" Leeland blinked stupidly, looking from the generator to Victor who was now firmly pressed up against his chest. Gently, he turned him to look into his eyes, to scour his face to see what was wrong. Why where his eyes glowing? Never before had he seen him look so serene and peaceful, even when he slept. It seemed that Victor was constantly carrying around a giant chip of a forest on his shoulders and Leeland really didn't want to add himself into that.

Gently he began to shake him before it turned into a frantic grip on his arms and he shook him from side to side. "Victor! Vic, come on spikes, speak to me!" And just like that, Victor opened his mouth and spoke to him, yet what he said was not exactly what Leeland was expecting.

"I did it to protect you." He said and if Leeland wasn't already pushed up against the wall, he would have slammed backwards. Blinking, he glanced over to the generator and backwards Victor. "Did what?" He whispered as he released his grip on the other boy's arm and chewed on the corner of his lip.

Raising his hand, Victor spread his fingers over Leeland's cheek. They were warmer than Leeland had imagined and he ran them softly over his cheekbone. His heart began to pound frantically in his chest and his stomach began lurching like a trampoline.

The fingers rested upon his left ear and a finger pushed carefully into his temple. "The biological implants in your hearing device-they where not needed."

Leeland stared at Victor, his eyes almost engulfing his head from shock. Quickly, he glanced at the generator and then back to Victor. "You're the generator." He whispered but nothing passed Victor's face to let him know. The boy mouthed 'biological implants' trying to think what on earth that could mean.

"Doctor McCoy said my co…cochlea's…what did you do to me!" Leeland didn't want to shout at Victor but if this really was the generator then he damn well wanted answers!

The Generator!Victor removed his hand and waved it absently. "They were of no use, Technarch."

"Of no use? Ah can't bloody hear, you nutcase!"

The being in front of him scowled before pressing a finger into his forehead. "A nasty biological infection that was going to eat away at your head, little Technarch. This meat sack that you call a body is not sustainable for your true form."

The alien inhabiting Victor lent back on his heels and beamed up at him, his eyes still glowing unnaturally bright. He opened his mouth to talk before stopping to glance at the ceiling. "Oh, I must be quick, they'll be coming for you soon, little Technarch."

"Why do you keep callin' me that? Is it what you call a mutant? 'Cos that's gotta be a lot easier to say than Teek-…err, Technarch." Actually he wanted to ask a multitude of questions but his head wouldn't keep up with him. Technarch, infection, why was he in Victors body? All of it and more. He wanted answers, needed them but if the staff were going to find them then he didn't have an awful lot of time.

"Ok, quick then." he leaned forward and took a firm hold of Victor's shoulders, resisting the urge to shake him to rid of the wild grin on his face. "The infection?"

"It was going to take over your head little one. You've been sick, so very, very sick as you're not meant for this body you were so unruly carved into."

"Ah wasn't carved." Muttered Leeland.

"Shh." The Generator!Victor warned him with a press of fingers on his pierced lips. "So I've fixed you - well…you'll need some minor adjustments but I'm pretty sure you'll figure all that out. Your father asked me a long time ago to protect you so-"

"Wait, wait, wait." Leeland pulled away from the fingers on his lips. "Dad? My dad asked you to-" The generator tapped him on the side of the head. "Don't interrupt!" It warned him with a firm scowl and Leeland could see Victor shining through.

"No…your real father. Or at least, some part of you is also a part of him. He was very sketchy and hazy on the details. Said last time he was with you, you burst into tears because he wouldn't take you with him…and something about mud."

Leeland blinked as he mind pulled a blank. _Crying and mud_? That could have been anytime in England! But who would take him wi- Oh… Then he shook his head over and over, his own fingers coming up towards his mouth as a memory hit him like a slap in the face. "That…that wasn't real." He whispered as he remembered a little pair of Wellington boots and a robot man nearly the twice the height of his father.

"Well if it wasn't real then one of us surely has a greater imagination then they're letting on. And I'm only a generator so what do I know. Now then…" The generator pulled Leeland's hand away from his mouth and held it tight between Victor's fingers. "You mustn't let them know that I'm this…this err, well." The alien licked out over Victor's lips as he tried to think of the correct word.

"Real?" Leeland helped.

"Sentient." The generator decided on and Leeland hunched his shoulders. "But…But you won't have to stay down here if they know you're this-"

"No! I'm here to run the school and protect the children. To protect you. Adult humans are tricky and believe everything and everyone is evil."

"Well Ah'm an adult…" Started Leeland and the face of Victor gave him a peculiar look. "No you're not." It told him flatly and Leeland scowled. "You're barely away from the bottle." It added tartly before glancing upwards again.

"Just remember one thing Technarch and it may save your life one day." It turned him with such force that the boy jumped before swallowing the cold lump of spit in his mouth.

"Was' that?" He asked quietly.

The alien inhabiting Victor lost its smile and looked at him quite seriously before leaning forward. It licked over the green mutant's lips and pressed his hands either side of Leeland's head before leaning in close so he could still read his lips.

"You're not human."


	21. Some Factual Information For You

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:**I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited on 14/10/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up. _

**Chapter****21:**Some Factual Information For You

Blinking stupidly, Leeland leaned back as far as he could go. The back of his head thudded against the wall of the room and his eyes practically crossed so he could keep an eye on Victor's lips. "Ah-uhh." Leeland mumbled to himself. "Ah sort of knew that." He whispered quietly, and oh God why couldn't those lips be somewhere else. Or for that matter, someone else!

The Victor!Generator blinked once, leaned backwards and tilted his head to the side. "Oh. When did you find that out?" He asked and an anti climatic feeling washed over his skin. "Uhh." Started Leeland. "Well ah'm a mutant. Ah guess you could say it was human, ah mean ah was born to humans. Ah think." He muttered, as Leeland wasn't to sure who he was born to or even how. Though he did expect a lot of squelching and that was certainly nothing he wanted to think about.

"You stupid boy, I know you're a mutant." And he hit him on the side of the head again.

"Will you stop doing that!" He hissed as he battered his arms in front of him, but he tried not to hurt Victor in the process. "Then why tell me that ah'm not human?"

The generator groaned at him. "You're being counter productive boy. Now listen to me, you're not human. You've never been human and you never will be. You may look human, sound and certainly smell it-"

"-Oi!"

"-But! The fact of the matter is you're not."

"So, a Technarch is an alien?"

"Yes."

"And…Ah'm an alien?"

"Yes!"

Leeland frowned with his eyebrows knitted together as he tried to add everything together in his mind. "Oh but you are slow." Said the generator with a tartly purse of his lips.

"Shut up an' let me think for a second." He pressed a hand to the side of his head and a warm trickle of blood flowed over his fingers. Warm and sticky and the smell of it made him feel slightly woozy. "These Technarch's, what are they then? What do they do?"

Scowling at him, the generator resisted hitting him again. Though he did peer around to look at his ears and shook Victor's head sadly. "They're aliens of course."

"_I__ know __that_!" Came his heated response through gritted teeth.

"Then why did you ask such a stupid question?"

"Oh-" Leeland opened his mouth to shout at the silly thing again when the expression on Victor's face changed. A serene look washed over his features and his glowing eye's rolled back into his head. "Huh? No-no generator, wait! Wait!" But Victor slumped forward and Leeland shot his arms out to grab him. His body felt cool to the touch and Leeland chewed on his lip in concern as the room became brighter and brighter.

The generator had returned to its rightful place but Leeland was annoyed at not receiving answers to his questioning. Licking over his piercings, he peered down at Victor who was slowly coming to and a knot in his throat began to dissolve. He waited with baited breath for the boy beneath him to come around, his lips smooching together painfully in anticipation.

Groaning, Victor pressed a hand to the front of his head before rubbing madly at his eyes. "OK." He started with a small nod of his head. "Something just happened, didn't it?" He asked, without moving his hand from his eyes but Leeland didn't reply. What was he supposed to say? _Why __yes, __the __generator __did __just __take __over __your __body __but __I'm __not __supposed __to__ tell __anybody.  
_

After receiving no reply, Victor threw his hand down and peered up at Leeland who was closer than he had expected him to be. "Uhh, Lee?"

Leeland said nothing and shifted uncomfortably. There really wasn't much room with the two of them and the generator in tow. A sour smell had started to circle around them and Leeland realised that it was mostly likely from his earlier vomit. "You fell." Said the boy, stupidly.

"Bullshit." Victor replied and he tried to sit upwards but they were terribly knotted together. They grunted, Leeland trying to help and Victor pushing backwards at him. "That thing did something to me!" He pointed wildly with one of his fingers, but the generator was silent.

"It ain't a thing!" Leeland retorted protectively, shifting himself between Victor and the generator, creating less room for the pair of them. "Ah told yah, yah fell 'cause yah lost yah bloody grip on the wall!"

"Oh, please." Victor replied dryly with a scowl. "I can scale buildings and climb upside down on ceilings and you're telling me I lost my _grip_?" They stared at each other, breathing jagged and tempers high.

"Yes." Came Leeland's ridiculous but stubborn reply.

Victor gritted his teeth. "Right." He began. "That does it!" Shouting, he threw himself forwards towards Leeland and grabbed a hold of both shoulders. He struck him down to the ground painfully, and the boy's shoulders bounced off the floor. Leeland hissed in pain and tried to kick up with his feet but his aim went wild and Victor was able to scramble over him. "I'm gonna start tearing wires out until you tell me."

"No! Don't touch it!" Leeland twisted over onto his stomach and pushed himself upwards, grabbing one of Victor's ankles to pull him backwards. The green mutant landed with a firm thud, both hands out flat on the metallic ground. He was able to push himself up and moved like liquid to the side, smacking Leeland in the shoulder as he went. He was clearly not exercising his full strength or potential.

However, the smack to his shoulder was a little firmer than Victor had anticipated and it shoved Leeland back towards the wall with a small whimper. It echoed in the tiny room and Victor stopped himself from doing anything drastic. Quickly, he peered over his shoulder and the anger faltered on his face. The other boy wasn't moving, sat with his back pressed up against the wall, his head bowed and his legs spread out in front of him. He pressed his hand up against his throbbing shoulder and winced at the tender twinge that shot down his arm.

"_Dick._" He muttered.

"Well…you started it." Came Victor's childish retort.

"Bollocks! Yah didn't 'ave to come with me in the first place. Ah told yah to cover me, an' you went and bloody rugby tackled me! Ah'm bruised to shit and Ah've no idea where 'alf of it's come from and my freakin' ears are bleedin' again!" The sting in his arm made him grunt again and kick his foot out in anger. His left foot struck the side of the wall and he hissed in pain when a jolt ran straight up towards his knee. "Ow." He sulked before tilting his head back to look at Victor.

"You're a real knob sometimes, yah know that?" Said Leeland flatly with a scowl and Victor returned the expression. He crawled over to Leeland, sat in front him in much the same way he had done when he was the generator, and slapped him.

The hit radiated like a burn against Leeland's cheek and he sucked back at whimper. His own hand rested against the offending area and it took all his might to blink back the tears in his eyes. It hurt more that Victor had hit him rather than the slap itself. They stared at each other and Leeland fell quiet.

"I only wanted to help you." Said Victor quietly, casting his eyes downwards before he snapped his head back up and glared at Leeland. "Not everyone is out to get you, but there are people out there who are. So stop being such a stubborn bastard when someone's trying to help you or you're going to start losing friends Leeland."

"BOYS!" A voice from above them scolded the room that Cerebro was housed in. It echoed off of the walls and Victor was certain that he could hear the remnants of a growl trickling straight after. Both boys winced, knowing full well that they were in deep trouble.

Neither said a word to each other as they climbed out of the hatch and shuffled themselves so Doctor McCoy could see them. He had a face that Leeland would have described as thunder. However, Victor could see a lion waiting to gobble up the tiny lizard and a dumb yellow puppy dog.

They were scolded outside Cerebro, the door behind them firmly locked. Beast knew very well though that Leeland could simply have walked back in if he wanted. However, when he was done with them he'd be surprised if they ever wanted to leave their rooms again.

"When I tell you to stay some where Leeland, do it! You're here for your own safety and protection boy, not to go wandering about whenever you feel like it. That room-" He pointed at the door to Cerebro with his paw like hand. "-Is out of bounds! You are not to go anywhere near it, Leeland Williams. Not near it, not in it, not even down this corridor."

Leeland sucked on one of his piercings during his scolding. An unsettling feeling swam into his stomach and tried to concentrate solely on Doctor McCoy's mouth. It was rather hard to read lips that were so angry that he was surprised that he didn't read a snarl at some point.

"And Victor, you know better and quite frankly I expected better."

Victor kept quiet as he took his telling off, but even Leeland could see that there had been some kind of trust broken between the two. It was something he himself had broken and he didn't much like the feeling it gave him.

"Doctor M-"

But Leeland was cut off when Beast put one finger in the air to silence him. "I don't want to hear it Leeland."

"But-"

"Williams, if you don't want to spend tonight in an observation tank where I can keep an eye on you then don't utter another word. Do I make myself clear?"

Resisting the urge to huff, Leeland simply nodded his head and let his eye's roam towards his trainers.

"Go upstairs Victor and get yourself cleaned up. I'll talk to you later," He glanced at Leeland. "On your own."

Victor nodded his head "I'm sorry, Doctor McCoy." He said quietly and Beast gave him a slight nod as he crossed his arms over his chest. The lizard mutant took that as his cue to leave and shuffled himself off quickly down the corridor, his hands jammed into his pockets as not to fiddle with his fingers.

He was so angry with Leeland. Yet, he was so much angrier with himself.

"Victor!" He heard Leeland calling his name and it took him a few seconds to finally look around at the other boy. When he did look, Victor's shoulders slumped.

The boy down the corridor looked battered and bruised, tired and wired all at the same time. His ears were a terrible mess and Victor was sure he was trembling.

"Ah'm sorry." He managed to say before Beast told him to hurry up and get back down to the infirmary.

Left alone in the corridor, Victor flattened his lips together and refused to chew on them. That strange unpleasant, yet wonderful feeling stirred up again in his stomach and he cursed it.

xxx

Firmly back on the bed in the infirmary, Beast warned Leeland that if he even thought about moving, then he would most definitely be in a world of trouble. Leeland didn't doubt for a second that he wouldn't be and sat very still with his shoulders hunched. Though now he could feel a bruise forming on the side of his face and he swallowed back the tears that were trying to form in his eyes.

Why did he say that to Victor? What on Earth was going through his mind to think that that was OK? Of course he knew he needed to suck it up and stop being such a baby. There were bigger things going on around him and he really had to toughen himself up.

Beast was muttering to himself as he came over to Leeland and started work, once again, on cleaning his ears. He had sent Josh back up to the main part of the building and Leeland was left feeling very much on his own.

After Beast had finished cleaning and dressing Leeland's ears again, he stood in front of him with a worn out expression. With a shake of his head, he removed his little round spectacles and gave them a clean on his lab coat collar. "What on Earth persuaded you to go back to the generator?" He asked but Leeland could only shrug his shoulders and look a little bit sheepish. Perhaps if he pulled off meek and innocent more then he would stop getting himself into such scrapes. Though on reflection he thought it was probably for that reason that he kept getting into so much trouble.

"No reason at all. You and Victor simply decided to go for a walk down to the most dangerous part of the school?"

"What, more dangerous than the Danger Room?" Leeland asked.

"Don't get cocky and answer the question, Leeland."

But Leeland fell silent once again and hunched his shoulder's forward, lips pressed together as he peered down at his trainers. He didn't hear Beast give a mighty sigh and he continued to stand in front of Leeland for several moments before giving up all together. "Fine, have it your way. You can stew down here on your own for a few hours until you give me an answer." Not that Leeland had heard any of what the Doctor had said to him but he did see his feet retreating and the words tumbled out of his mouth.

"What's a Technarch?" He hadn't even meant to ask Beast so suddenly but that sudden urge to know had built up inside him. If the generator was not going to tell him, then he would simply ask someone else.

The boy peered over his shoulder at Beast's rather confused looking face. Pressing his glasses back onto his nose he peered at Leeland before asking, "Where did hear that?"

Shrugging his shoulders, he replied "Nowhere. But it's an alien, isn't it?"

"Who told you about the Technarchy? Was it one of the other students, Victor- "

"No! No…Nobody told me about them, Ah just know is all." He replied rather quickly, determined not to tell Beast about the generator. It had a job to do. It had to protect the children and it couldn't very well do that if he went and blabbed to everyone.

Of course Beast didn't looked as if he believed him, but he let it go. "Yes, they're aliens. Not a very well known race but they have been here." A nostalgic smile creased the old man's face. "We had one on our first young team of mutants."

"Warlock." Leeland said without missing a beat and the Doctor stopped for a moment, the smile faltering on his face. How did he proceed with this? After all, he was the only one apart from Emma to know who Leeland's real father was. Or at least could be his father.

The beaten boy with his blood soaked hair gave the Doctor a sad little smile. "Ah'm not gonna beat around the bush. I already think ah'm insane for thinking it- probably a load of bullshit any way." He mumbled and turned back around to stare at his trainers, contemplating on what the generator had told him about the "father" who had asked it to look after him. What a bang up job it'd done so far!

There was a quick shuffling of feet and Beast quickly went over to the door of the infirmary, closing it firmly before locking it. A look crossed his face, one that Leeland wasn't too sure about and he gulped when Beast came over to him. The man braced his hands on Leeland's shoulders and whispered to him.

"Tell me, and tell me quietly."

"W-what?" It wasn't exactly what Leeland had been expecting.

"Leeland, do you want to sleep in your bed tonight or in an observation tank?"

"Bed!" Leeland all but shouted. "Definitely a bed…and not one down 'ere." He added.

"Then you'll tell me everything you know about Warlock and the other Technarch's."

The boy gulped and all but jumped when Beast pulled away from him quickly and headed to the back of the infirmary. Leeland watched him go and nearly fell from the bed when Beast motioned at him to follow. It wasn't through shock; mostly that he couldn't get his legs to work the way he wanted them too.

Battered and bruised, he followed Beast quickly down towards the smaller Danger Room where he had first put a computer together.

"Just to make sure…" Beast said quietly, turning to face Leeland so he could read his lips. "That we are talking about the same Warlock." He moved towards the centre of the room. Leeland stood at the side, his arms looping around the small set of steps that took a person down into the room.

"Well I doubt it's a very common name." he mumbled to himself and watched as Beast pulled up the chamber from the floor. Crouching around one side of it, he pushed at some buttons that Leeland couldn't see, before standing back. A holographic screen appeared before the two and Leeland gulped.

A strange sensation made his neck prickle and his hair stand on end. A ghost like image stared down at him and the boy shook his head; his arms wrapped so tightly around the stairs that he was surprised that he didn't pull them clean off.

"This isn't him then?" Beast asked, almost relieved as he too stared up at a robotic looking man. Gleaming blacks and vibrant golden yellows worked throughout his body as intricate wires and sturdy bolts. His mass of wire like hair was as wild as Leeland's was scruffy.

"Ah made him up." Whispered Leeland. "Dad said Ah'd made him up."

_The Invisible Robot  
May 1997  
The North of England_

Leeland was almost 8 and a half. That was what he told people when they asked how old he was. Not that people ever asked, after all the village was quite a close knit community and everyone knew everyone else. Though Leeland had suspected from a very early age that there were certain things that adults kept secret; like whom his mother was, for example.

It was not as if it ever upset him, only ever having his Dad, but there were a few times when he felt excluded. It would be his aunty Josie, Brian's mother, who picked them both up from school. His father was always working late, even on weekends and Leeland would be miserable without him. School fates, nearly all the mam's helped out and not to mention parents evenings. Just him and Dad, the poor Irish man having to sit on one of those tiny little chairs not made for a man built like a fridge.

He was never disruptive in school but it wasn't as if he really excelled at anything either. Except for art of course which they only did once a week for an hour. That was hardly enough time and often he would hide in the toilets afterward crying because he hadn't really learned his spellings. He'd tried of course, but it was as if his silly little head simply wouldn't keep the information in. Often he would wonder if having a mother meant he would be able to do his spellings better? She could sit with him and teach him all the difficult words and that would show his teacher that he wasn't thick!

Because Leeland wasn't stupid. His Dad had told him so, even though it felt and sounded like a lie.

It wasn't as if he was any different from the other little boy's in his class, eight all together and ten girls. Though he and Brian were like two little peas in a pod or "two little shits up to no good" as his Dad would put it.

Leeland was often pushed out at school. He didn't want to play football or roof house with the others. The girls never pushed him away though, like they did with the other boys, and he was often found with them at break, playing with the skipping ropes.

His year four teacher, Mrs. Hutton, had brought it up at his parents evening.

"There's just one more thing about Leeland. A small concern of mine." She told the rather tall and broad shouldered man. He bore no resemblance to the tall little boy in her class with his pale lemon hair and spindly legs.

"He doesn't seem to be getting on with the other boys." She started, pushing her tiny spectacles up her rather sharp nose.

"Oh? He's not said anything and he and Brian have been together since they were…well, forever." His father admitted with a small frown. The teacher gave him a pleasant if not slightly condescending smile. As if she was better because she was the teacher and he was only the child's father and what could he possibly know that a university hadn't taught her so many years before.

"Mr. Williams, how should I put this? Leeland isn't like the other boys. He likes to play with the girls and the boy's exclude him for this, even Brian."

Frowning again his father couldn't help the small smile that ran across his lips. It wasn't that Leeland was effeminate; he climbed trees and played in the dirt like any other eight year old. However, he knew he was slightly different and gave a small nod of his head. "That sounds like Leeland." He admitted and the teacher gave him a peculiar expression.

"What does it matter if he only plays with the girls? If it's not bothering him then it's not bothering me." He admitted with a soft shrug of his shoulders.

Mrs. Hutton was wrong though. Partially wrong at any rate. Leeland did play with the boy's and quite happily. They didn't exclude him; he simply chose not to play with them on occasions when he thought it was going to get a little violent.

However, one break-time they had been playing hide and seek and something rather startling had happened. It was the year four boys against year five. There were eleven of them to their eight and Brian was their best hider and Leeland their best seeker.

"It's cheatin' to use 'im!" Matthew Cook, a rather squat ten-year-old had moaned pointing at Leeland who was by far the tallest of the group. "E can see above all our 'eads!" He whined to which Brian responded rather tartly for an eight-year-old: "Well yah better hide in a better place then, this time. All of us could see you from behind that tree. It ain't wide enough for your fat arse!"

Mathew had swung for Brian and the tiny dark haired boy had jumped back with a half mad grin and dubbed Leeland seeker for their team. The blonde was up against Tommy Garner, a boy about as skinny as he was and could have blown away in the wind. However, Tommy was good but Leeland knew he was better. Mathew Cook was right, he could see above everyone's heads and he did the one thing no one else though of. He stayed still.

After both he and Tommy had counted to twenty, the nine-year-old had sprinted off towards the wooded area that was strictly forbidden but no dinner ladies had strayed from the concrete playground to see. Leeland, on the other hand, remained where he was. His pale eye's silently scanned the playing field and towards the wooded area. They scanned across the field of sheep next to the school and up across the road that led onto the motorway and away towards the city's.

He never knew how Brian did it. It was as if he simply vanished. He was also a little knob who never told Leeland where his secret hiding place was. The blonde didn't forgive his best friend for that. Ever.

So off he went, the warm early summer wind blowing around his scruffy school uniform. It wasn't that he turned up to school a mess, but he _was_ a little boy. His school trousers were wearing at the knees and the white polo shirt always looked brown by Friday.

He spotted Gregory Black first, hiding behind the ball wall. It was a brick wall twice the height of him and as long as a house, which was used by the year six's as a goal post. They were away on a school trip.

"Gotcha!" He whispered harshly, peeking his pale head around the brick wall. Gregory squeaked, then swore. He grumbled as he moved off to the middle of the field and plonked himself down. The first catch of the day, he was up by one.

Ten minutes later and he had five more year fives. That included Matthew, who swore loudly, complained that Leeland was cheating and went to sulk with the others. The boy had been hiding in the wooded area and half way up one of the smaller trees. Though it wasn't a very good hiding place as he had snagged his jumper on one of the branches and Leeland had to help him down.

It was after the other boy had stormed away that the blonde was aware that someone was watching him. At first he presumed it was one of the year fives or even one of his fellow classmates. He turned abruptly and shouted, "BANG!" but nothing replied. The wind picked up and he shivered ever so slightly. Turning away he began to hum a little child's song, completely forgetting his seeker duty. Absentmindedly he began to pick bluebells that had coated the wooded area's ground. The boy had been told off many times before for picking wild flowers. Not that he cared. They were pretty.

The humming became quieter as he crouched down in front a small clear patch in the trees and hunched his shoulders. The wind curled around him and something tickled the back of his neck. It was like a warm string of electricity had slowly crawled up behind him but instead of shocking him, it tickled. It had been like that ever since he climbed the pylon. Daddy had beaten what he called "tens bells of shit" out of him for that once he was well enough. He hadn't been able to sit on his bum for days.

Ever since then the electrical appliances in the house would act strange around him. They would suddenly turn off when he walked into the room or turned on at the most inappropriate moments. He never told his father though; it seemed like something he didn't need to know about.

Staring at the patch of bluebells, Leeland watched with wide eye's as a large shadow loomed overhead. Scrunching his eye's up tight, he muttered under his breath that there was nothing there. Nothing could hurt him when the sun was out, that's what Daddy said. "And nothing can hurt you in the dark either." He'd added with a sad smile as Leeland had huddled around his night-light.

Little hairs stood up on the back of his neck and he felt the heavy weight of a hand rest upon his shoulder. He couldn't take it any more and let out a terrified little squeak and fell forward into the flowers. The hand moved itself quickly, resting under the boy's chest to break his fall. The boy landed with an awkward thud over something hard…moving. Peering down, Leeland looked over the hand's that had caught him; strange black robotic like appendages cradled his small long body.

They were adorned with gold circuits and bright yellow nuts and bolts holding them all in place. Leeland forgot for a moment that he was supposed to be scared and stared at them, intrigued. The hands gently let him down to the floor and the boy scrambled on all four's before slipping himself over.

His little mouth made a small 'O' as he looked up and up at the strange being in front of him. It was certainly a robot, Leeland knew that much. Black and gold, the same as the being's hands. It was tall and skinny, much taller than the little boy was. It grinned down at Leeland with a wide bright smile. It's teeth were straight polished oblongs in its mouth. The eyes were as wide as the child's own and the boy found himself staring at its wild scarecrow like hair.

"Greetings Infant." Came the creature's male voice, crisp with a slight detection of robot coarseness. It waited for Leeland to speak and when the boy didn't reply it tilted its head to the side with a frown.

"H…Hi." Came Leeland's tiny voice, barely a whisper and the creature crouched down in front of him and peered in with its bright shiny face.

"Self's designation is Warlock. What is yours, infant?" The being, Warlock, peered at Leeland with a wide grin and Leeland was reminded of the _Cheshire __Cat_. For a moment he wondered if he had hit his head.

"Err…what's a designation?" The boy asked, bringing his legs closer to his body. He raised a skeptical eyebrow at the robot and stretched himself forward until he was face to face with the creature. His hands where planted on the ground below, dirt building up on his pale skin. He should have been terrified, he knew that. Except…he wasn't scared.

"Your name. What have the Earthlings designated you?" Warlock asked quite patiently as Leeland stretched out his hand and poked the robot in the front of his head. Quickly, he scooted backwards and scratched the back of his own head.

"Oh…Leeland. Daddy called me Leeland. Ah think mama did too but ah don't remember her." He told Warlock quite truthfully and he stared down at his hand. Warlock certainly felt very real. But Leeland often daydreamed when he was bored and this had to be one of those occasions. Had to be.

"Hmm." Warlock lifted a hand and scratched at his chin, thinking. "You certainly look like self soul friend."

"A what?"

"Self Soul Friend Doug! He was Self's best friend!" Warlock exclaimed happily before a small sadness crept onto his face and Leeland bit his lip. "My best friend's called Brian. 'E never tell's me where 'is 'iding place is, it's like 'e goes invisible."

"Self did detect a temporal disturbance in the air. " Warlock looked back down at Leeland before getting to his feet. "Self Soul Friend Doug must have kept you a secret Infant for reasons Self can not comprehend. But then, self is very young and knows very little."

"I ain't an Infant." Leeland corrected the Warlock who looked at him with an air of puzzlement.

"Ah'm in year 4, Ah'm a junior. The Infants aren't allowed on the field 'cause they're babies. And…" He got to his feet, wiping the muck on his hands onto his trousers. "Ah don't know anyone called Doug."

"But Infant, you must!" Warlock protested.

"Ah ain't no infant!" Leeland very nearly shouted, jutting his lip out and clutching his fist. "Ahm eight and a half and ah'm the tallest in mah class."

"Self is also the tallest in Self's class. Since Self Soul Friend Doug's death, Self has been…confused and class has not been the same. He would not accept Life glow and Self became very puzzled. Self-friend Rahne explained to Self that Doug was dead and that he would not come back. They put him in the ground and they told Self that Self would never see Self Soul Friend ever again." The robot looked sad, its shoulders sagging as it spoke to the strange and familiar little boy in front of him.

Leeland blinked. It took him a few moments to figure out just what the robot had said. He didn't completely follow, but he got the general gist of it. Biting the side of his lip he reached out with his hand, patting the creature on the arm. "It's OK Warlock. Ah can't see Mama either…and Brian can't see his Daddy. But that's ok. It's not like Ah'm on my own. Bet you have friends too."

"Self has many friends, but Doug…" He looked down at the little boy who nodded his head. "Doug was your best friend?" He asked and Warlock nodded.

They stood in silence for a few moments before the sound of a school bell made him jump. A dinner lady could be heard calling each year group.

"Ah gotta go now." He looked up at Warlock and took a deep breath. He laced his fingers around the robot's hand and squeezed it tight.

"You mustn't!" Warlock exclaimed and held Leeland's hand firm but the little boy shook his head. "You gotta go home too. You have to visit Doug's grave or it'll get lonely like my mama's. It's too far away for us to visit it." Leeland gently pried his hand for Warlock's and stood apart from him.

"Well…bye then." He rubbed his freckle-covered nose and waved bye. The robot made the same childish action and Leeland grinned before he turned and quickly ran from the wooded area.

Warlock gave an almighty sigh; his shoulder's physically sagging. His calculations had been so precise! He had detected Doug, he was so sure of it. But then all that had shown up was a child swimming in Doug's DNA and something closer to home. He frowned but a smile played on his mechanical lips. He disappeared from the spot, borrowing technology that was not his for the journey and the wooded area was left silent.

That was until a small shock of blue light erupted where Warlock had stood seconds before.

"BRIAN SIER!" A teacher yelled somewhere in the distance and the little boy swore under his breath. He set off at a run towards the playground, completely unaware of what had just happened between his best friend and a lost little alien.

After that first meeting, a great storm had fallen over the little village where Leeland lived and it had rained for days. The gutters in the street had started to swell and there was talk about the river over flowing. So much for the weekend.

None of this really concerned the little boy sat at the kitchen table, his hand grasped around a black crayon as he scribbled. The wood beneath the paper was worn and scrubbed, with random pencil crayon marks here and there where the boy had slipped over the years.

Leeland listened to the rain as is spat onto the window just behind him, his eye's wide as he concentrated on the dark marks on the paper. The giant black coils that made up the bulk of the robots legs and the strange way his mouth glowed without having any light behind it. The boy poured it all into his drawings, over and over.

His father had been watching him absently from a far for a couple of hours. Walking past the table every now and again he would get a new glance of his son's new invention; the robot named 'Locke.

"And he's an robot man, you say?" Daddy asked again and Leeland looked up with a slightly annoyed expression. The kind that little children can only play on, it makes them look adorable instead of irked.

"Yes. He came looking' for 'is friend who he couldn't find because he's dead." He said quite bluntly and turned back to the drawing. Daddy frowned behind him and settled into the chair next to his eight year old. "Who's dead Leeland?"

Leeland raised one shoulder in a shrug, rubbed at his nose and looked up at Daddy with pale eyes. "'E said 'e had a friend. That his friend had died but he was pretty sure that 'e had put him some where."

Daddy bit the corner of his lip and picked up one of the drawings. It was something he had noticed in his son since he was old enough to hold a crayon or mess with a pot of paint; he had an eye for form. His grades may have been appalling but the kitchen walls were covered in his adolescent scribbles, each one better than the last one he'd drawn.

"When I was a bit younger than you, I had a friend like this too. I called him kipper."

The little boy looked up at his daddy with a frown and arched one slim pale eyebrow. He wanted to tell him that Kipper was a silly name, but what did he know? Instead he turned back to his drawing.

"Are you not getting along with Brian, Leeland?"

"What? Of course ah ahm!"

"Then why the imaginary friend?"

Leeland dropped his crayon down onto the table and turned sharply towards Daddy. "'E's not imaginary!" He exclaimed, jutting his bottom lip out in a sulk and he glared up at Daddy, testing him to see what he would make of that piece of information.

His father simply sighed and nodded his head. "Ok Leeland, he's not imaginary." Something sounded off about the man's tone of voice and Leeland shifted uncomfortably on his seat.

He got up from the table and peered down at his son. "I have to pop across the road for a few minutes. Will you be OK on your own?"

Leeland nodded his head as he went back to his drawing and his father stood sheepishly for a moment before nodding and moving off and out of the kitchen. Something didn't settle right with the man. Perhaps it was the tone of the boy's voice or how defensive he became of his new "friend." He'd tried to stop being so paranoid over every little thing Leeland did but after almost nine years, it was starting to weigh on his shoulders.

After hearing the front door click shut, Leeland put down his pencil crayon and peered over his shoulder. The rain still hammed down hard against the glass and everything outside looked gray and dull. It was strange, like a shimmer of unpolished glass had been dropped over the little village.

The boy stood up and headed over to the widow, his fingers pressing smudge marks up against the cold clear glass. His eye's scoured the dark sky and he gnawed on the side of his lip.

"Where are you?" He whispered quietly, pressing his forehead up against the cool glass. He scowled, and curled his little fingers into small angry fists. The robot had been real. Hadn't he?

But it had been three weeks since Warlock had stopped him falling head first into a patch of flowers. Their fleeting meeting had stirred something strange inside the boy's very being. The appliances around the house had not reacted strangely to him. In fact he used the toaster for pop tarts that morning without it setting off the smoke alarm like normal.

It was a strange longing feeling. Like he had been suddenly left with someone he didn't know and in a strange alien land. The little boy didn't know what the strange feeling in his head meant or the odd looks he now gave people. Like seeing them for the first time.

He felt like an alien, abandoned and alone waiting for someone real to come and pick him up.

A flash of lighting illuminated the sky and Leeland's head shot up. A tingle ran up his spine and danced along his skin and it caused a grin to spread out across his freckled face. As quick as a shot, he ran towards the back door and quickly slipped on his little green Wellingtons. He grabbed up his raincoat, pulled the hood over his head and unlocked the back door. Without a second thought, he ran out into the cold rain and headed towards the back fence.

His father had fixed it months before. Leeland had unfixed it. Now one of the slats moved to the side and he was able to slip through. He ran out into the old field, rain and mud splattering up against his short clad legs and Wellington boots. He stuck his hands up in the air and gave a great yell of joy "Ah'm here! Ahm here!" He jumped in the biggest and muddiest puddle he could find and shot his arms up into the air.

Grinning, rain water poured down into his face. He giggled, as it tickled down into his clothing and soaked him through. He spun around and around, his little raincoat was now as wet as he was and he came to a sudden halt and peered up and up at the robot in front of him.

"You…you came?"

The rain bounced of the robot man, making his naked circuitry almost gleam in the dullness of the day. The robot nodded and raised his head towards the sky. The rain washed down him and the little boy tilted his head to the side.

"Won't you get rusty?" He asked before frowning. "And what took you so long!" He stamped his little welly covered foot. The mud squelched underneath him, making him a little uncertain on his feet.

"Self is sorry infant. The demons of limbo had escaped, and now our home is destroyed. Self friends and Self must move to a new place, high above the clouds." Warlock peered up at the rain clouds and Leeland pursed his lips to the side.

"Daddy says you're all in my head. That I made you up." He supposed demons, blowing up a house and a home in the sky would warrant imagination. But he was eight and he only just figured out that putting tin foil in the microwave would blow it up. If this were all in his head, then surely he'd be smarter by now.

"Self is not in infant's head!" Warlock retorted with a slight tapping of his foot and his hands pressed firmly to his hips. He peered down at Leeland with a tilt of head and the boy looked at him with a perplexed little smile.

"Sorry." He replied and realised that it was probably very rude to insinuate that someone wasn't real when they were as plain as the freckles on his face. "Told you I weren't no infant as well." He leaned forward and poked one little finger into the robot's stomach. It was hard like metal, and as warm as skin ad he placed the full spread of his hand against it.

Little droplets of rain slashed off his hand and he grinned up at Warlock who smiled right back. A great robotic hand came to the top of his head and patted the short fuzz of hair gently. "But you are an infant. _His_." he said is sadly with a forlorn smile and Leeland frowned in confusion. He was about to ask whom when he was quickly scooped up off the ground and placed neatly on the robot's hip.

"Hey!" Leeland protested, kicking his long legs out wildly. He was a bit big for picking up. Not even Daddy picked him anymore, except when he fell asleep in places other than his bed. However, Warlock was taller than Daddy. Taller than any other person he had ever met and he did feel quite safe in the arms of the robot.

"Ha!" Said Warlock. "Does this not prove to little self-kin that Self is real?" he asked and poked the boy in the side of his chest. It caused him to giggle and Warlock beamed at him before placing him back down on the ground.

The rain was certainly heavier now, cascading down upon then like a small waterfall. Warlock peered over his shoulder and a look of worry seeped in his eye's. The little boy frowned and looked around Warlock, but he could not see much on the account of the rain.

"Locke? It's raining pretty hard now." The boy began to chatter. The water was cold against his skin and it seeped down into his clothes, causing them to stick to his cooling skin. "You wanna come to mine. You'll rust out here. Won't you?" Leeland glanced up at Warlock who did not respond, nor did he look down at Leeland.

"Locke!" Leeland whined, getting more frustrated and he reached his hand up to Warlock's and began to tug on it. "Come on, or you're gonna get all stiff like the tin man." He tried to pull the robot over towards his house but the robot didn't move. He did however look down at Leeland.

"Infant, Self must tell you something very serious."

Leeland paused and blinked slightly. He nodded his head and his grip on Warlock's hand tightened. _Don't __leave __me.__ Don't __leave __me __again._ He pleaded over and over in his head.

"OK." He voice was ever so quiet.

"Self-Kin mustn't let anyone else know Self was here. Not your father or your friends. Self-kin must go straight home."

"What?" It was so abrupt that Leeland didn't quite understand. He refused to let go of Warlock's hand.

"Self-Kin. You must go home!"

"No!" Leeland shouted and let go of the robot's hand abruptly before throwing his arms around the creature's middle. The little boy did not quite reach the robot's waist and instead he hugged his leg tightly. Pressing his cheek into the metal and wires, he squeezed his eyes tight as not to cry. "Ah ain't leaving yah, so you'll just 'ave to take me with yah!"

Warlock blinked and he looked down at the tiny human shaped infant. He glanced up and around the large unused field that they were occupying and his eyes rested upon the little cottage that the boy lived in. With a silent move of his arms, he timidly stroked his metal fingers through Leeland's short hair and the boy loosened his grip for a moment. The little boy looked up at the robot and the rain merged with his tears.

"This is human emotion that Self finds confusing and hurtful. Self does not want to leave little self-kin behind for self-kin is the first of his kind and certainly not safe." He spoke mostly to himself as all Leeland could do was stare at him with large perplexed eyes. "However, little self-kin is in the care of someone that Self trusts." Not that Warlock had ever met Leeland's father but the boy seemed in fine spirits, apart from a strange anomaly or two that the alien kept picking up at strange intervals.

Crouching down, Warlock gently pried the boy off of his leg and took a firm hold of his shoulders. "Self-kin is to stay here."

"But…but ah don't want to. Ah want to go with you. If you're really real like yah say yah are then yah'll take me with yah!" Leeland whined, his little hands curled into annoyed fists. With his little lip jutted out he scowled at Warlock and a part of him felt ever so disappointed.

"Bribery will do nothing for you little one. If Self-Kin wants to stay safe, then you will go home right now." And Warlock pointed with his arm that was almost as long as Leeland but the boy stubbornly shook his head.

"No! ah won't go!" He shouted and he stamped his foot again. Unfortunately, the mud beneath his feet had become dislodged and slippery. It caused the boy to gasp as he toppled backwards, hitting the ground below with loud thud. The mud splashed out around him, covering his once colorful raincoat in thick mud and various bits of long dead grass.

"Self-Kin!" Warlock gasped, moving to try and pick up the boy. However, Leeland scrambled backwards as he glared up at the robot. "Daddy was right! You are just in mah head 'cause I never come up with anything good! Why couldn't ah 'ave made up my mama instead!" He began to cry as he forced himself to his feet, trying to wipe his face with his muddy coat sleeve.

Warlock could only look at him with an expression of confusion before it turned into sympathy. "Self-Kin…" He sighed as he tried to reach out for the boy again.

"Shut up!" The boy shouted. "Mah names Leeland! Ah'm going home and ah never wanna see yah again!" he shouted before turning angrily and stomping all the way back to the broken fence and his garden.

The robot watched almost dutifully after the child, who didn't run. He made his way home in an air of what Warlock read as fury. A frustrated anger hung around the little boy but it was not something the alien could take away. He wasn't even sure there was any way he could make things better.

"Good bye Self-Kin." The alien said quietlyand shook his head before disappearing from the spot, not realising that it would be the last time he saw the child.

Returning to the garden, Leeland clutched to the fence as he forced himself not to look back at Warlock. However, it got the better of him and he turned to peer over his shoulder. The alien was no longer there and a sudden feeling of loss swept over the boy's little body. Gulping back tears, he gritted his teeth and kicked the back fence.

The wooden slat promptly fell off just as he heard Daddy calling frantically for him. "LEELAND!" His father's voice fairly roared over the sound of the rain and he jumped slightly before scrambling through the fence.

Sheepishly, he stood at the back of the garden, covered in mud and dead grass and fiddled with the front of his coat. "Where the hell have you been, boy?" His father came the garden path, looking annoyed, frantic and wet. The boy knew he was going to be slapped and burst into tears.

Williams slowed and stood in front of his wet and muddy son, the anger on his face replaced with frantic concern. "Leeland? Lad, what's wrong?" The man demanded, taking his little boy by the shoulders but the boy couldn't say and he fell forwards to clutch his fathers soaking coat and hid his face in it.

How could he possibly tell his father that he had been right all along? That the creature he had made up in his head felt more real to him than his father ever would.

_Now_

The boy was still clutching the stepladder as he stared at the image in front of him. He'd fallen silent but resisted closing his eyes, he couldn't very well "hear" anything if he did that. However, the feeling had stirred inside of him, one of fear of not belonging and he didn't much care for it.

"Ah'm such a stupid idiot."

"Leeland…" Beast started but the boy shook his head before glaring up at the holographic image. He flicked his hand angrily at it, sending it away with flicker as he sat on the bottom step with a thud.

"How…How the hell did ah think ah'd made him up? How thick a kid was I? How thick am ah now!" He groaned as his let his head bow, fingers snarled in his scruffy blonde hair. Everything was slowly coming back to him; how terrible he was all that summer. Quiet, stubborn and angry.

"Ah got so pissed off with everyone. Angry with my dad and ah couldn't even tell him why, heck ah didn't even know why!" shaking his head, he closed his eyes and hid himself away in the dark solace of his own being.

The feeling a gentle hand on his shoulder made him look at Beast and the good Doctor could not have looked sterner. "You are not stupid."

"Ah'm thick! Thick, thick, thick. There was an alien practically stalking me and ah went and invited him back for tea. All that time my dad was trying to protect me - God no wonder we stopped talking." He pushed away from Beast and moved himself further into the room. With his arms wrapped around his chest he scowled, an almost permanent fixture on his face.

Beast all but tugged his arm off when he turned the tall youth to face him, frowning behind his glasses. With a stern glare he pointed a finger at Leeland. "Read these lips Leeland, and read them well; you are not stupid. A little stubborn perhaps, a tiny bit angry but certainly not stupid."

"You'll be taking that back when yah see my high school grades." Leeland warned him and Beast raised his hand. For a split second, the boy winced, thinking he was going to be hit again. He'd had enough of that with the generator, and Victor. Instead, the great paw like hand settled itself on his head and ruffled his hair.

The boy opened his pale eyes as the cat like mutant smiled at him, albeit with slight pity in the corner of his eyes. "You may not be book smart, and you may need a lesson or two in common sense, but your handling of this whole situation is rather admirable." The man removed his hand, not before patting him on the arm again.

Leeland sucked on his lip, unsure how to reply and decided to let it slip past him. "So…" He started quietly. "Ah'm an…alien? Or at least ah could be?" He asked with a frown, feeling terribly confused.

"It would appear so." Beast motioned for the boy to follow him towards his office. "I think-" Started the older mutant. "It's time, Leeland, that I came clean and told you about your father. You're real father."

xxx

The hot water felt great against Victor's skin. It washed down his face and his aching limbs. The day's events had well and truly worn him out and he was looking forward to curling up somewhere warm and quiet.

He watched as Leeland's blood trickled away down the drain and he let out a tired sigh. "This is too much." He muttered to himself, his lips taking in the warm droplets of water as he wiped the soapsuds from his eyes. It certainly wasn't easy keeping stuff away from his eyes without eyelashes.

Stepping out of the shower, he shook off the water and grabbed a towel from the hanging rail. Pulling the soft material tight around his shoulders, he braced himself for the cold outside his bathroom. It didn't matter how warm he had the room, cold bloodedness was not something everyone else had to put up with. He could not regulate his own body temperature like the other students and had to rely on an excess of heat. (He wondered how Leeland had even slept in it.)

Taking a deep breath, he opened the bathroom door and attempted to run and find clothes. The scene that met him though had him staring wide-eyed before he gave an almighty squeak and ran back into the bathroom.

"Oh come on Victor!" Alani and Hope had been stood in front of his bathroom door, waiting for him to move on out into his bedroom.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Victor could feel his voice practically breaking, again, as he shouted at the girls. Though it did sound slightly muffled through several inches of wood. He shrank himself as small as he could and wrapped several towels around his naked body.

"It's not like we've not seen it all before." Alani rolled her eyes, used to the kind of warmth in Victor's room due to childhood in Hawaii. Hope was less used to it, fanning her self down with her hand and growing slightly irritable. "And you don't even like girls so why should you care if we see." Snapped the usually quiet girl, her love for classical music usually kept her quite mellow. The heat didn't agree with her apparently.

"Yes!" Victor hissed. "But that doesn't mean I want you to see me naked!"

"For goodness sake." Alani threw her hands up in the air and she moved over to the boy's dresser and pulled him out some clothes. "What are you doing?" Victor asked suspiciously, not to comfortable with the idea of the girls in his room. Especially Alani.

She marched back over to the bathroom door. "I have clothes for you, open the door or I crumble it down…or I send in Hope."

"I'm not leaving my body out here in this heat! It's like a sauna in here!" Hope complained and just as the girls blinked their eyes, the bathroom door snapped open. The clothes were grabbed and the door was slammed shut again.

After several moments of Victor muttering nonsensically, the door opened to reveal a rather annoyed looking lizard boy, slightly camouflaged due to his embarrassment. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared at the girls before titling his head to the side. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

The playfulness of the situation had disappeared and Alani looked at him with slightly concern. "Victor." She started, before glancing at the short brown haired girl. "We heard you screaming."

The boy let his arm's drop, but he didn't respond. He sniffled and rubbed at his nose, glanced over his shoulder and began to pick up the discarded towels strewn upon the floor.

"Vic? Did you hear me?" The Hawaiian girl asked gently and she approached the bathroom door.

"I heard." Said Victor. "I'm not sure when I was supposed to have been screaming though. Maybe when I found you outside my bathroom?" He tried to smile through it, but that image of the smiling woman was burnt into his mind. He shook it away though.

"You scarpered from Miss. Frost's office like you'd seen a ghost. I mean I know she's pale and quite creepy but-"

"Look." Victor started, resting his hands on the towel rack. "I appreciate the concern, really." He gave them a soft smile but shrugged his shoulders. "It's just got nothing to do with you guys."

Alani scowled at him. "Leeland?" She asked and the green mutant rolled his eyes. "Not that I have to explain myself, but yeah. When is it not about him?" Victor was starting to miss normality. But then again, to miss normality you had to have some resemblance to normal. Which none of the mutants had.

The girl smirked behind her hand, her eye's creasing and Victor saw it as nothing good. "Is that all, I've got homework to do. And Hope's about to pass out." He pointed at the brown haired girl, who all but given up fanning herself and had flopped back on the bed with sweat pooling around her.

"You must have the biggest crush on him if you're keeping secrets for him." The girl shrugged, her hands going behind her back as she crossed the room to Hope. Victor stared at her before spluttering. "Alani!"

"What, it's perfectly reasonable." She gave a shrug of her shoulders as she pulled Hope up onto her feet.

"It is not! Get outta my room!"

They left, Alani smirking to herself and Hope muttering about breaking the boy's thermostat and being in denial. Just as he was about to slam the door, the tattooed girl poked her head back around the door. "But you know he likes you, right?"

Victor scowled and then slammed the door.


	22. A Cheerful And Sunny Disposition

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited __on __14/10/2011.__ Cleaned __up __a __few__ spelling/grammar__ mistakes __and__ did__ a__ general__ tidy__ up._

Chapter 22: A Cheerful And Sunny Disposition

Pacing his room, Victor decided that Alani was wrong, very, very wrong. Weren't they old enough to be past who had a crush on who? It seemed so childish and demeaning? Who he liked and whom he didn't like was none of their business! Pausing, he caught a glance of his annoyed expression in the mirror and his shoulders slumped.

With a huff, he realised he didn't like looking so annoyed and angry all of the time. Not that he could help it, the past year had been a hard one and it had shaped him into something he was not too pleased with. It was not as if his personality had changed, he was just more cautious, a little bit protective and just that tiny bit closed off. If you kept people at arms length, then it hurt less when they came to leave. Or died. At least that was what he had drilled into his own mind.

Moving over to the window, he glanced down and out over the cold icy grounds. His eye's rested upon the graveyard and he pursed his lips to the side. _Maybe __I __should __just __leave._ He thought to himself. His parents did miss him, and he missed his old school friends. Besides, the holiday season wasn't too far around the corner. Perhaps he just needed to recharge.

He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the cold glass and it made him shiver. He thought of Leeland stuck back down in the lower basement yet again and he couldn't help feeling marginally sorry for him. But only marginally, even if he did apologise to him earlier, he still lied to him.

The generator had done something to him and Leeland had stuck up for it, as if it had been something alive and real. It had annoyed him that the blonde had defended it to the point of them fighting each other. Albeit, it was a rather pathetic fight, but one none the less.

"Stupid…blonde…bean pole." He muttered under his breath and pushed away from the window. He would simply have to go back down stairs and shout at the boy for a bit until he felt better. Or at least until it made the strange sensation in his stomach go away.

Meanwhile, Leeland was sat in Beasts office with sweaty palms and his heart thumping painfully in side his chest. A part of him did not want to know who his real father was; he was quite content with his real-if not slightly incarcerated -dad. But this was the start of it, as well as the little bit of information he already knew about Warlock. There really was no turning back.

"Leeland, are you ok?" Beast frowned as he peered over his glasses, and in his paw like hand he held a file. No computer holograms, nothing to increase or to be interrupted with his power set. The boy gave a clumsy nod of his head, fairly gripping his jeans in the process. They where dirty and blood smeared, as was the rest of him. He knew he didn't smell wonderful and the perspiration under his arms wasn't helping.

"Ahuh."

"Because we don't have to-"

"You're kidding me right? Look at me Doc, ah'm ready." And Leeland had the good graces to smile. It was a sad smile though.

The older mutant nodded as he handed over the old file. The boy took it in his hands, the corners where soft from wear as if someone had sat there with it for a long time, brushing it between their fingers. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, blocking out all distractions before he nudged himself to open them.

The photograph hit him first. Old and worn, paper clipped onto the top of the file, but the person on its surface smiled up at him. It was a boy, no older than he was. The smile itself was small, as if he wasn't sure about himself and Leeland gave out a tiny laugh. God, it was _his_ smile. The nose was different, sharper than Leeland's and just that little longer but his own pale eyes rested on the boy's dark green ones he sucked in a deep breathe. The boy in the picture was not as pale and his hair not as lemony, more honey coloured. The freckles he did have where few and far between.

Working up the courage, Leeland finally braced himself to look over at the boy's name.

"Self Soul-Friend Doug." He muttered, remembering the ever so special name that Warlock held for Douglas Ramsey. The dead best friend he had tried to search for but would never find.

Leaning over his desk, Beast tapped the file to make the boy look up and he gave him a warm smile. "Don't read it all now, but keep it out of sight of anyone else. Ok?"

The boy gave a slightly bewildered nod of his head "But…what if they wanna know?" He asked, not very good at thinking on his feet as the generator and Victor went down as well as brick's on a laptop.

"I've given the file to you, Leeland, it's yours to do with what you please."

"Then why tell me not to tell people?" Leeland frowned as he looked at the Doctor, whose paw like hands were resting underneath his chin. There was a look in his eyes that Leeland couldn't read but it made him nod his head, confused beyond belief.

"Now I suggest you go and shower-and if I find you anywhere near the generator then I have no qualms about grounding someone _almost_ eighteen."

XXX

Clutching the file to his chest, Leeland padded down the wooden clad corridor and towards the main staircase. Luckily he didn't pass anyone on the way down. However, when he came to the staircase that led to the boy's dormitory he paused and peered over his shoulder. He glanced down a separate corridor, the one that held all of the photos of past and present students. Chewing on the side of his lip, he took his foot off the bottom step and moved himself of and around the corner.

He stood in the middle of the almost crowded corridor with its picture frames and beaming students in every colour and style of uniform. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of students who had walked down the corridor he stood in. It made him feel so small, yet part of something huge and a strange smile appeared on his face. It was small, and awkward and his pale eyes glanced at Victor's squad photo.

Stomach lurching, he tore his eye's away from it and focused on some of the older photographs. Boy's made of ice, girls with magenta skin and feathers where hair should have been. Everywhere he searched, different faces smiled out at him, or smirked in one or two cases.

Stepping further down the corridor, he stopped and felt his arms tighten around the file.

Warlock looked different, not how he remembered him. Longer, with arms that wrapped around all eight of his comrades. Dressed in a black and yellow uniform, he peered at the nametag underneath: New Mutants. The alien was holding up a girl who looked no older than Megan with straw blonde hair. She beamed; her arms out stretched and the boy whose shoulders she sat on avoided the camera to look at her with a bemused expression. Leeland would smile like Doug when he was confused.

Reaching forward, he poked the photo and small bit of dust came away. He supposed dusting wasn't high up on the X-men's agenda.

Victor made his way down the staircase, hands pressed into the pockets of his jogging bottoms. He was going to work up the courage to tell Leeland what he thought of his lying-_how__ hypercritical __of __you __Victo_r-thought the boy suddenly. But Victor knew what was for the best, and friend's really didn't lie to friends about generators and mind control and…his shoulder's sagged forward before he rolled his eye's. Actually, he had no idea what he was going to say to him.

When he moved his head back, he caught a flash of blonde hair just outside his vision. Frowning, he craned his neck. Hands came up to rest on the banister and he peered down an offshoot corridor that lead to some of the unused classrooms.

It was Leeland, peering up at the photographs with an expression that Victor couldn't read. With a scowl, he quietly came down the stairs and rested his hands on the corner of the wall and gently peered around the corner. The blonde boy didn't see him and he wondered what on Earth he could be doing.

Sighing, Leeland looked down at the file in his arms and gave a quick glance towards the main staircase. Somebody quickly whipped himself or herself out of sight and the boy jumped and dropped the file.

"Shit!" He muttered, crouching down to pick up various papers and the photograph that had scattered about the wooden floor. Pressing his lips together, he scowled and tried to gather up the papers in the right order. The photograph was missing, and small spark of panic erupted inside his chest. "Oh no." He whined but he looked upwards, and someone he couldn't quite see held out the photo in front of him.

Leaning back on his legs, he tilted his head to the side and gingerly took back the photograph of Doug and green skin came into view.

"Oh..hi Victor."

Victor came into view, his cheeks darker than the rest of his skin and he watched Leeland as he scooped up the papers and held them like something precious.

"What are you doing down here?" Was the first thing Victor asked, shoving his hands back into his jogging bottoms. Leeland shrugged his shoulders and glanced up and around the framed pictures. "Not much. Ah was lookin' for someone. Guess ah found them." He got to his feet and towered half a foot over Victor and the green mutant felt his stomach do a great flip-flop. _Idiot__ digestive __system._

"Ok, Leeland-" Victor started, and quickly, closing his eye's to get everything off of his chest. However, the blonde beat him to it.

"Ah'm sorry ah lied to yah Vic. Ah wasn't thinkin' straight at the time an' ah really upset you. So Ah'm sorry." He had the good graces to look well and truly ashamed of himself. Bowing his head so his messy, dirty hair hung over his pale eyes.

Every little bit of anger Victor had at that moment in time dwindled to nothing and instead it was replaced by something kinder. Not quite pity, and not quite forgiveness.

"An' ah understan' if yah don't wanna be friend's with me anymore." Leeland added, his feet shifting uncomfortably but the words came out as a mumble.

Victor was not sure how to respond to that, and instead a sad little smile spread across his lips. He took his hands from his pockets and gently lifted Leeland's chin so he could read his lips. "Of course I want to be friend's with you…moron." He took his hand back and poked the boy in the nose. "Beep."

Leeland smiled, and it reached his eyes.

"What have you got there?" He asked finally, unable to ignore the file clutched to the boy's chest, hoping to change the awkward subject. Of course he only glanced at the photograph, not realising how important it was, or who it really was for that matter.

"Oh!" And Leeland became terribly excited, before he remembered what Beast had told him. He fought with himself for several moments; making peculiar faces that Victor arched an eyebrow at.

"Doctor McCoy gave it too me. Said ah wasn't supposed to tell anyone, or show anyone but…Ah wanna show you." He handed Victor the file. "Vic, ah think ah found my bio dad." And Victor took the file, feeling slightly privileged that Leeland was sharing this supposed secret information with him. This time, he was able to take a good look at the photograph and at the name.

"Cypher?"

"You…You know him?" Leeland asked somewhat hopefully, but he knew that Doug was dead and nothing was actually going to change that. But if Victor knew him, then certainly that meant something.

"Not really. I mean I know of him but…Leeland, he was only ten or so years older than you."

"Wait…what?" Leeland frowned, pressed a hand up and into his straggled mess of hair. He did a quick, albeit slow, sum inside his head and his heart sank at once.

"Dude. Doctor McCoy must have seriously screwed up. Come on, let's take this up stairs and see what we can figure out." Victor realised that the Doctor must have given the file to Leeland for a reason, even if he was wrong reason. There was simply no logical way for him to be Leeland's real father, and the look on the blondes face fairly killed him inside.

"But…The Doc said that it was, didn't 'e?" He frowned, muttering the last bit to himself as he tried to figure out the last fifteen minutes or so. No, Doctor McCoy had most definitely said he would tell him who his father was and had then presented him with the file.

"I wonder how long he's known?" Victor wondered, almost to himself but Leeland shrugged his shoulders. "Must be a reason why they didn't tell me, but ah'm so confused. Where does Warlock come into this?"

"Warlock? As in Brian?"

"Nah. Guess ah should tell yah the story, huh?" And so they walked towards the boy's dormitory as Leeland relayed the story of how he once met the Alien known as Warlock. That he was small enough to not realise that he had been real all along and that he thought he'd made it all up.

"And then when we were back with t'generator, it said that Warlock 'ad told it to protect me. That 'e-Warlock-was my father but that just doesn't make sense." It sounded like a problem aired on Jeremy Kyle or Jerry Springer. The mutant or the alien, one of them fathered me. …Right?

"When did the generator say that? Come to think of it, when did the generator say anything?" Victor paused outside his door, quirking an eyebrow up at Leeland. The blonde stiffened for a second before a sheepish look swept over his face. "Uhh…When it …it-itsortoftookoveryourbody." He mumbled, looking down and away so he couldn't catch Victor's expression.

"Pardon?" Said Victor, and Leeland spoke a little more clearly, but a great degree quieter. "It…it took over yah body."

"So something did happen!"

"Ah said ah was sorry!"

"Victor gritted his teeth, hands on his hips with a scowl that would make Spartans bow at his feet. Leeland almost did.

"You're worse than Nicky." But Victor only shook his head before he reached up and swatted Leeland lightly on the back of the head. "Get in the room Leeland." He huffed, still angry but he couldn't let it fester. After all, wasn't he still lying to Leeland about Emma Frost? Or at the very least he was keeping rather vital information from him.

Entering Victor's room was like entering a sauna. Leeland blew a strip of hair from his face and began to pull his sticky jumper over his head. It was blood soaked and dirt encrusted anyway.

"You should probably get in the shower." Victor suggested, as he knelt down in front of his bed to spread out the pages from the file.

"Mate, Ah've just been given a dam gold mine. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense, and it doesn't matter if I smell. What matters, is that ah 'ave it. Now, if ah can just figure out why?" He knelt down next to Victor, watching as green hand's gently laid out another persons life before him. It was kind of sad. A life reduced to a few sheets of paper that would not even make up one chapter of a book. Still, thought Leeland. It could have been worse. There could have been no chapter what so ever.

"Douglas Aaron Ramsey." Victor said aloud. "Born October 16th 1976." He looked at Leeland and tried hard not to shake his head. "That would have made him twelve Lee…" He let the information sink into the blonde but the boy shook his head rather stubbornly. "No." came his reply. "Well, yes, 'e was twelve." He quickly added after the look Victor gave him. "But there must be some connection, has to be."

Victor thought perhaps it was wishful thinking, but what did he known? He had always known who and what he was. Watching Leeland made him realise how lucky he was with what he did have. Not that what Leeland had was anything less, it sounded as if he had had a rather nice upbringing all thing's considering. But he did not have that empty feeling of not knowing. Well, he assumed it was an empty feeling but he did not ask and instead turned to look back down at the papers.

Leeland feverishly chewed on the side of his lip as he read about Doug and his hectic life. How Professor Xavier kept his mutant power, oh so similar to Leelands, secret from him. It was to prevent a rather peaceful boy with a passive power from leading a life of violence. But as he read, he came upon unpleasantness after unpleasantness and a once peaceful boy was shot down and killed like an old wounded dog.

Swallowing, Leeland sat back on his legs and his shoulders dropped slightly. Doug's life, though heroic, had been pathetic and short. He had stopped reading when he came to a final note at the end of the 10th piece of paper and a scene erupted inside his mind:

_Wolfsbane was fighting a Right soldier when the Ani-Mator aimed his pistol at her. Cypher cried out to warn her of the gun, but she misunderstood him thinking he meant the Right soldier's shoulder-mounted weapons. Cypher leapt and pushed Wolfsbane out of the way. However, he wasn't wearing his graduation uniform, and the bullet passed through his chest._

_Wolfsbane continued to fight, warning Cypher not to be silly and hide again. Lying on the floor, with his last breath Cypher apologised & promised not to do it again. Cypher died in the middle of the fight, and no one had noticed._

Leeland was not going to cry. He did not know him, it would not be right. Victor nudged him lightly with his finger and turned to look at him. "I'm sorry about Warlock, Leeland."

The blonde boy frowned as he stared at Victor's dark green lips, tried to work out what he meant. "What'cha mean?" He asked and turned when Victor pointed another section of the file, a bit had not read. Eye's scanned the page and the words leapt out him, and they stung like a slap.

Warlock…killed…reduced to ashes…scatted on Doug's Grave.

Why did that hurt more? Because he knew whom Warlock was? Barely. He'd met him all off twice and even then he'd brushed the meetings off as childish delusions. So why did tears sting at his eye's? Why did he grind his teeth and force his hands into painful fists. It hurt, that was why and he gave up. With a half moan, half angry grunt, he let himself fall backwards to the floor.

The carpet was soft under his head and he angrily pushed his knuckles into his eyes. Pushed until pink streaks burst out and blue stars danced before his distorted vision.

Victor watched all of this, his face hardly changing. It was a quick and sudden burst of grief he was witnessing and he would let Leeland wallow for a few moments. A sad smile touched his lips. He knew how the story went from there. Leaning over the bed, he grabbed up the last couple of sheets and turned back to Leeland. On a whim, he lay down next to him and gave a rather over dramatic sigh and held the papers above his head. "Want to hear the rest of it?" He asked.

"Huh?" Leeland blinked, bringing his arm away from his eyes and blinked. Looking to his side he frowned at Victor, as if he was telling a rather cruel joke but Victor only smiled at him. "It's not the best story in the world, and yeah it has flaws. The ending's just the same but maybe you'll understand a bit more."

"Understan' what? They're dead. What more is there to possibly understan', Vic?"

Rolling his eyes, Victor looked up at the papers. "I don't really need these. Used to hear all kinds of stories when this place was a real school and not, you know, just a handful of us. By the time they were our age, the New Mutants where fighting in Asgard and taking out the likes of the Hellions. Do you remember the Phalanx out break, about eight years ago?"

Leeland sucked on his lip piercing and gave a small nod of his head. "Summat about an alien attack. All ah remember was not goin' to school for a few weeks. It was awesome."

"No Leeland. You're supposed to say it was terrifying. That you didn't even know if the toaster was on your side or not."

"Ah was ten Victor. Aye 'eard 'no school' and that was pretty much it." Leeland huffed, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the ceiling. But he felt a small poke of a sharp nail in his arm and he turned his head. He was still glaring but a soft smile had crept up onto Victor's face and Leeland could not help smiling too.

"Well the Phalanx where an off shoot from the Technarchy."

That got Leeland's attention. He turned, half leaning upwards with his hand supporting his head.

"I don't quite understand the science of it all. I'm not Beast." He smirked, coaxing another little smile from Leeland. "But from what I do understand is that the Phalanx are formed when organic life forms are infected with the Technarchy's techno-organic transmode virus-"

"The What?"

"It's how they feed Leeland. Take something organic, infect it until it techno-organic like themselves and then ingest it. Like I said, I'm not the science guy."

"Anyway, the Phalanx pass through a lifecycle attempting to infect others before reaching critical mass. At that time, by hard-wired instruction-they can't help it-, they build a "Babel Spire" to contact the Technarchy. The Technarchy, however, consider Phalanx to be abominations. Then, they destroy the Phalanx "nest", usually by converting the entire planet into techno-organic matter and draining its energy."

"That's sorta sad." Said Leeland. "It's like they wanna prove they're jus' as good as the Technarchy."

Victor nodded. "Kinda. But the Technarchy are evil bastards-"

"Hey!"

"No really, they are! All except Warlock of course. That's why he was an x-man. He was the first mutant of his species. Didn't have an aggressive strain of the trans-mode virus. So he didn't want to kill and consume everything he came in contact with."

Leeland rubbed his temple and pulled a face that said: I'm confused. Use smaller words. "But…what abou' the Phalanx then?"

"Ahh see, the Phalanx on Earth were created by mutant haters-figures huh. The Transmode virus doesn't infect mutants but the mutant-haters attempted to turn themselves into living sentinels so they could track down and kill us. They injected themselves with the Transmode virus so they would turn into Phalanx…Sorry Lee, they used Warlock's ashes to do it."

Leeland pursed his lips together and nodded his head, letting the silence hang in the air for a second or two. That was until Victor reached up and poked him the arm again. "They resurrected him to do it."

"Huh!"

"He called himself Douglock. The Phalanx tried to use him as a way into the X-men, to spy for them. But he broke free, became his own person."

"So…so it was Doug? Or..what?"

"It was Warlock with Doug's memories. Took him a while but he soon remembered who he was."

"Where's Warlock now?"

Victor shrugged. "Couldn't really tell you. Took off a few years ago to his home planet, I think, after helping _The __Avengers_ take down his own father."

Leeland scratched at his head again. It was a lot to take in and he still didn't quite understand most of what had been said. "Ah'm so…confused!" He let himself tumble back down to the ground, drag his fingers through his hair and groaned in an over dramatic fashion that caused Victor to chuckle. The green mutant sat up and leaned over Leeland so he could read his lips. "You and me both. You can only come from two people but there's clearly three." He held up his hands and counted off his fingers. "Doug, Warlock and…and whoever your real mother is." At once his heart began to pound. Victor knew full well who Leeland's mother was. So why could he not just come out and say it!

"I…" Leeland sucked on one side his lip as he stared up at Victor, stomach practically lurching. Without thinking, he reached up slowly and let his fingers dance across his dark green cheek. It looked bruised. To approve his suspicions, Victor winced slightly and Leeland quickly threw his hand back down to the ground.

"Victor…"

"Yeah…" They stared at each for a few moments until Leeland closed his eye's suddenly and painfully tight. "Do you…do yah think it makes me a bad person if ah don't wanna know anymore?" Of course he couldn't get his answer unless he opened his eyes. "Ah jus' want mah Dad. You know, the one that stuck his neck out for me, raised me. Does it…does it make me a bad person if ah just want him and no one else." His heart was beating so hard in his chest that he was sure people could hear it down the corridor.

A warm hand surprised him, settled on his chest. Leeland slowly unscrunched his eyes and timidly peered out of one and up towards Victor. The other boy smiled gently at him and slowly shook his head. "You didn't ask for this Leeland and neither did Warlock or Doug. If you were a drunken one night stand I'd tell who ever your parents are to pay up but…it's not their fault either."

"So who do ah blame?"

Victor stared down at him, a sad look lingering his eyes. "Is that the game you want to play Leeland; Blame?"

Lifting one shoulder, Leeland shrugged. "Someone did something awful to Doug and Warlock…an' mah mother. Don't you think someone should pay for that?" He asked and Victor simply looked at him, unsure of how to reply. "I…" He started before frowning.

"They want me Victor. The people who made me an' they ain't gonna stop until they do."

"If they wanted you, then surely you'd be with them by now."

"See ah don't think so…maybe they're not ready for me yet but ah'll be ready for them." He said seriously, and an emotion passed Leeland's face. It was one that Victor had not really seen on the boy before: determination. "Ah don't know if Doug Ramsay really is mah father, but he's connected to me. That much ah do know. Ah owe 'im this."

"To what? Go in fighting gun's a blazing?" Victor frowned but Leeland shook his head.

"No, nothing like that. But ah'll know when ahm ready. Right now, ah don't even have a training uniform or a code name. Sure, that's not gonna help me much in the long run…but if ah'm gonna be at this school 'till ah'm twenty one then ah may as well act like the mutant Ah'm supposed to be." A little smile appeared in the corner of his mouth and Victor smirked at him.

"Why Mr. Williams, are you saying you want to be an X-man?"

"Hmm. Mr. Borkowski, ah do believe yah correct."

They laughed. It was a real laugh that the pair of them had been holding in for some time. The pair of exhausted boys collapsed in a heap of giggles at the side of Victor's bed. It wasn't even that funny but they needed something to smile at, a little thing to find humorous. The last forty-eight hours or so had been headache inducing and soul sucking and it all suddenly came tumbling down on the pair.

Lying on the floor in Victor's room, spread out with only the very tip's of their fingers touching, a sense of calm spread over the pair. They stared at the ceiling, silence from both boy's as something akin to peace seeped into the warm sticky room. Until Leeland broke it oh so eloquently.

"Victor?"

"Huh?"

"Ah stink."

Victor snorted and brought his hand to his mouth, tried to stifle out the laughter that escaped from his lips. Slowly he sat up, looked around at Leeland who was staring at him with intense pale eyes. "Then go shower, loser."

"Can ah use yours?" He asked and Victor nodded, half shooing him away with his hands. "Sure." He watched Leeland push himself to his feet and disappear into the bathroom. With the secret he was keeping still eating away at his stomach, Victor sat up and began to collect up the file. It was scatted in several sections across his bed and floor. Leeland had not gained all the answers he wanted, but the file meant something special to him and so Victor took great care in putting it back together.

As he slipped the papers back in the yellow cover, he realised the picture was missing and peered under the bed. He took it up between his fingers, heard the sound of spraying water and rolled his eyes: Leeland did not have any clean clothes. Quickly and carefully he affixed the photo to the file and left it on the middle of the bed before making his way towards Leeland's room.

Stepping out into the hall, he felt the cold rush of air and shivered slightly. He padded down the hallway and slipped into Leeland's almost bare room. Over the past few days he had started tacking illustrations to the wall over his bed. Victor had barely glanced at them the few times he had been in the room but they seemed to be growing by the days.

He stopped and stared at them. Some were quick sketches of the various mutant children, still with outline marks-rough and rushed. Still, they carried of air of talent and he stepped forward to look at them a bit closer. Victor smiled as faces he knew jumped out at him, some hazy sketches, others rather detailed and precise. Surely he had to have been sitting in front of them for hours? But they looked to be passing glances.

However, something caught his attention when he looked across the wall of illustrations and doodles. There was none of him. That made him sad, made him frown for some reason. There was even one of Emma! With a roll of his shoulders, he shoved the angry thought to the back of his mind and moved over to the dresser. He pulled out a t-shirt and pair of jeans and then moved to the top drawer to find socks and remembered the blonde probably needed boxers as well. Heck, if he could handle Santo's tent like pants on laundry day, then Leeland's were no problem.

He picked out the first pair he could find and tried to make it look as if he had not been searching for the right pair. As he was about to close the drawer, the corner began to stick on something protruding. Not wanting to just jam the drawer, Victor placed the clothes on the floor and gently pulled it out. The offending object was a brown spiral bound sketchbook. It was the one he had seen Leeland carry around the grounds of the institute.

Lifting it out, his immediate thought was to place it straight back in the drawer and let it be. Curiosity got the better of him though and he opened the book. The drawings of himself that he wanted to be up on the wall stared back up at him. Little rough doodles, half finished sketches and drawings he must have done one a whim. Turning the page he was faced with more drawings of himself; smiling, laughing, but most of them he looked sullen, almost sour. Is that how Leeland saw him, or was that how he was now?

Questions suddenly arose in Victor's mind. Why were the drawings hidden in Leeland's sock draw and not up on the wall like the others? A great intense pain filled the pit of his stomach and he closed his eye's to well it away. But it was a good pain and he suddenly wanted to keep it. He let his fingers keep turning the pages, even when his mind screamed at him that it was time to stop.

"Oh." Came a voice and it made Victor jump, clutch the sketchbook to his chest and spin around on the spot.

Leeland stood in front of his now closed door, one hand out as he had just pushed it shut. His pale hair was damp, hanging loose in dark clumps around his head. A long towel was clutched around his middle and he stared at Victor, as if seeing him for the first time.

"Ah was…needed clothes." He muttered, eyes traveling from his sketchbook towards a small pile of clean clothes that rested at Victor's feet.

"Which ah guess you where getting' me, huh?" He asked and Victor nodded his head.

"Did…did'cha look?"

Victor nodded his head and then he peered down at the book clutched in his hands. "They're beautiful." He said quietly, and he didn't know if Leeland could read his lips from so far away. He looked up at the blonde who was a red as a cherry and shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to the other. He was dripping wet and the room wasn't exactly warm.

"I'll let you get dressed." He smiled quickly, not really sure what to do with himself. As he passed the desk, he pressed the sketchbook on top of a pile of papers and hurried past Leeland, didn't even catch the hurried calls for him to come back.

Leeland was left clutching the towel around himself, wondering what on earth had just happened. Quickly, he dried of, grabbed the clothes Victor had left for him and pulled them on. Gave his hair and quick towel drying and made sure there was no more blood coming from his uncovered ears. Then he grabbed up his sketchbook and followed hot on Victor's trail.

Standing in front of his now closed door, he felt a little foolish. Sucking the metal piercing into his mouth, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was no reply.

Sat on the edge of his bed, Victor clutched at the yellow file in much the same way Leeland had done and stared down at the picture of Doug. It was like looking at an older Leeland and the boy had to close his eyes, not look. He was aware of a knocking on his door, but didn't respond. Instead, he kept his eyes closed, tried to concentrate on his breathing and a sweet sugary smell wafted in front of him. He opened his eyes and there was Leeland looking down at him with a streak of pink across his nose. He held out the sketchbook to Victor.

"Take it." He told him quietly and Victor frowned up at him.

"Ah made if for yah anyway." He admitted and let his hand drop slowly when Victor would not take it. "Yah said yah birthday was in February, but ah couldn't remember when. So ah thought about Christmas and-"

"Leeland?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm Jewish*." He said and Leeland made a small "Oh" noise and held the sketchbook between both hands. "Does that mean ah can't give yah presents?"

"What? No I…" Victor trailed off and smiled instead. "Tell you what, we'll trade. Your sketchbook for the file?" It took Leeland a second to realise what was going on and he smiled, nodded his head and they exchanged their "gifts".

After a few moments of awkward silence, Victor rolled his eyes, leaned forward and tugged Leeland forward to sit next to him. The blonde did so; landing next to Victor with his toes gripped inside his socks and the file laying attentively on his lap. Looking up at him Victor frowned. "Why weren't they on your wall?" He asked to which Leeland shrugged.

"A whole sketch book of yah on the wall would'a been ah little weird." He admitted but Victor shrugged. "Not as weird as finding it in your underwear drawer."

"Oh…" Leeland started. "Ah didn't think of think." He was silent for a moment. "Ah don't think of a lot of thing's really. Kinda useless."

"Don't be like that Lee-"

"No, it's ok. Really." He smiled down at Victor; they were almost the same height on the bed. "That's why ah draw. 'Cos ever since ah was tiny ah could always pick up a crayon an' scribble when the sums became too hard or ah didn't understand what mah teachers were telling me." He smiled, gave a roll of his shoulders. "When ah was old enough to realise that this was all ah was good for, ah kept at it. I 'ave me guitar like but this." He gestured at the sketchbook. "Well ah was never gonna be a rock star." He admitted with a grin and Victor smiled back at him.

"More Warhol, less Sting?" He asked and the blonde boy nodded.

"Did'cha mean it though."

"What?"

"When yah said mah drawings were beautiful?" Leeland asked quietly and Victor nodded, turning to look up at him. "Yuh, why?"

"Ah just draw what ah see." He replied quietly, a blush as thick as the carpet creeping over his nose, cheeks and neck. It looked as if it burnt wherever his freckles were. His heart began to pound wildly against his chest, his fingers gripping into the bed covers as he waited in almost agony for Victor to reply.

The green mutant could only stare at him, tore his gaze away to look at the sketchbook and he shook his head quickly. Tried to speak, couldn't make his throat work. It felt as though he was staring at a diamond- perfect and casting rainbows when the light caught it just right- then having someone turn around and tell you that it shined like that because _you_ were the sun.

All right, so Victor did not think himself as important as the sun but he had the sudden urge to burrow his way into some deep cave where no one could find him, and grin like a proud idiot. Quickly, he stood up and shifted from one foot to the other, words simply failing him before he finally just stepped forward, wrapped arms around Leeland's neck and he hugged him. It did not last more than a second before he licked his lips and stepped back, rubbing at his smooth green arms as he stared off at the wall. What did you say to that kind of compliment? Well, Victor wasn't sure, but he was going to find out. Later. Much later when his mind wasn't acting like some hyper gerbil on acid.

Leeland looked just as shocked, and had not quite expected Victor to do what he had done. He had barely anytime to register in what was happening or the feel of victor's skin against his own before it was gone again. Oh, they had woken up wrapped around each other in bed but this was something different. This was a conscious decision.

With a quick swallow, Leeland got to his feet and fiddled with his fingers for a second. Then he leaned forward, wrapped his arms around Victor's neck and buried his face in the hollow of his shoulder.

Victor froze. He had not expected anything back and he suddenly was not sure what to do. "Why…why are you hugging me as well?" He asked, and then remembered that Leeland couldn't see his lips and so he couldn't 'hear' him. Instead, he answered himself. _Oh,__ just __roll __with __it._ He wrapped his arms around Leeland's waist and their chests pressed together. The heart almost pressed against his felt like a jackhammer or the heart of a tiny mouse. If it didn't slow down, he was going to give himself a heart attack. "Leeland…" He said softly, fingers brushing the boy's narrow and skinny back. Could fell the lumps of his spine and strangely recalled a game from when he was little. You would ask the person how many fingers where on their spine. There was a silly rhyme that went with it-couldn't recall it.

The boy pressed again him felt warm, they both did. Their clothes began to stick together in the heat of Victor's room. Leeland broke them apart first, his arms still loosely linked around Victor's neck. The other boy, still running his finger's over the skinny spine.

Without thinking, Leeland's mouth moved to the tip of Victor's nose and he pressed his lips onto it. Didn't have time to pull back as Victor nudged him slightly and his mouth moved to meet his. The taste of warm metal filled Victor's mouth as Leeland's lip piercing grazed his lips, his teeth. It was warm, almost alien to him. He tasted the tang of metal and something sweet like sugar but that couldn't have been it.

Leeland felt breathless, wasn't sure what he was doing until he was doing it. Victor's mouth tasted like limes and salt. Could feel his tongue resting just beyond reach. With a little bit more confidence than he actually had, Leeland urged Victor's mouth open a little more. He pressed his tongue in and let it glide across Victor's own.

Something unwound in the pit of Leeland's stomach, heightened his senses and made him aware of every inch of skin, every little hair. Finger's brushed the back of Victor's neck, skin pressing against the dull spikes at the base of his skull. He wanted to explore every second of him, hands moved forward and back until they found his shoulders and then the small space between his shoulder blades.

Suddenly he felt Victor's hands come around to the front of his chest, accidentally graze against his nipples and he gasped. They pushed each other apart, like an electrical shock had passed right through them and Victor began to take in deep gulps of air.

"I…A'm so sorry." Leeland whispered breathlessly, not quite sure what had come over him. But it had felt so good, tasted…Had to close his eyes and shake his head. Tell his heart to stop beating so fast and for his mind to get out of the dam gutter!

"Just…Just couldn't breath." Victor laughed, pressing his hands to the top of his knees to grin and breath. Peering upwards, he watched Leeland scrunch his eyes up tight, hands curling like a terrified child. He shook his head, stepped forward to make the space between them smaller and took his hands in his own.

Slowly, Leeland's eyes began to open and he peered down at Victor. He realised his hands were caught up and that he could not escape by simply running for the door.

"What are you sorry for?"

"For…for bein' stupid?" He tried, wondering if that was the correct answer for his brain had turn to mush somewhere between the hug and the kiss.

"Kissing's stupid?" Victor asked and Leeland's eyes went wide, his head shaking madly. "No! That's not what ah mea-" He stopped when he watched Victor's lips curl into a smirk. It made his eyes brighter somehow and Leeland found himself tilting his head back in wonder for a moment. "Not what ah meant." He finished, realised his hands where still caught up in Victors and that he rather liked it. In fact, he had liked a lot of what had just happened in the last few minutes. He'd probably be able to recall it correctly once his head stopped swimming and his mind stopped cheering.

"Pretty sure I owe Alani and Hope money." Victor muttered.

"What for?"

"Doesn't matter." Victor smiled. Something genuine that made his face brighten and his eyes were almost close with…happiness. Yes, Leeland was pretty sure that was happiness.

Sucking in breath, Leeland decided to just push the boundaries and go for it. "Can…can ah stay in 'ere tonight. Rather not…not be on mah own if ah can't hear." It was half true. Victor looked at him quizzically for a moment of two, tilted his head back and nodded with a smile. "Sure."

xxx

It was getting late. But not so late that the thought of rum raisin ice cream didn't make Nicholas drool like the dog he thought he was. Must have been the only kid in the building who liked it. Rolling off his bed, the boy landed on agile legs and had to fairly wade through the dirty laundry and candy wrappers. After closing his door he began to head down the corridor with hands shoved down into the pockets of his jeans. There was at least one hour left of curfew and now that common room was no longer covered in glass he was pretty sure there were still some good cartoons on that he needed to watch.

The little boy came to halt outside Victor's room and frowned. Was he giggling? The wolf child quirked one ear, peered around the corridor and quickly flattened himself to the ground. He pressed his ears to the bottom of the door.

There were two people giggling! He could pick out Victor's deep voice in a crowd anywhere and then another sound that he had not heard as often. A soft laughing like he wasn't sure it was allowed. Leeland? Why were they giggling in Victor's room of all places? It was like being in a sauna in there! He tried to see under the door but all he could get were glimpses of socked feet that disappeared with the sound of a creaking bed.

"What are the hell are you doing?" A voice asked behind him and the wolf child gave a tiny yelp as he was dragged upwards. Spun around by the scruff of the neck, he noted the bright green light that could only belong to Julian.

"Get off me!" Nicky kicked out with his feet, shoving his clawed hands out at the older boy who jumped back with a grin. The telekinetic boy kept Nicholas off the floor and at arm's length with his powers. The little boy began to growl and Julian tutted at him before blowing a strip of long dark hair from his eyes. Rolling his shoulders, he let the child drop to floor. He landed with a thud on his behind and growled up at Julian.

"What did you do that for!" He whined, rubbing his butt as he glared up at the hellion. Julian rested his hands on his hips and leaned forward to speak before the sound of laughter caught his ears. He frowned and pulled back to Victor's door and pressed his ear up against it.

"Julian!" Nicky whined but the older boy simply waved his hands at him and stuck a finger to his lips. "Shut up a sec, will you?" He found the hollow part of door and strained to listen. The sound of laughter, then silence and then muttering. All of a sudden the door was pulled open and Julian fell through right through it with a rather girly squeak.

It also happened that Nicky had crawled under him to listen at the exact same moment and the two boy's landed in an awkward heap at his feet. Victor peered down at them with a quirk of an eyebrow and his arm rested lazily on the doorframe. "Err. The hell are you guy's doing?" He asked with a frown as a taller figure peered out from over him and grinned down at the two on the floor.

"'Ow'd yah get down there like?" Leeland grinned at Nicky who huffed at him and began to shove Julian off his face. "Very funny Williams." Julian grunted as he tried to get upwards but Victor only shook his head and attempted to close the down. At once, Julian's hand came down and smacked against the wood, stopping him from closing it. "Seriously though, what are you guy's doing in there?"

Victor scowled, pulling back on the door and opening it a little wider. Leeland stood next to him; their body's skimming past each other but barely touching. "What do you care we're doing?" Victor asked with a purse of his lips.

"I don't-" Julian started and Victor took that as his queue to slam the door as hard he could and lock it quickly.

"Nosey gits." Julian heard Leeland mutter and he scowled at the door that was now once where his face had been. Had to pull backwards to avoid his nose being smacked and he glared down at the little wolf that smirked at him. "You're not in charge of everyone Julian."

"Oh shut up pip squeak." He leaned down and dragged Nicholas up by the elbow and fairly pulled him down the corridor and away from the two hidden boy's.

Leeland stood in the middle of the room, chewing his lip. Attentively, he ran a hand through his pale, and now dry, hair and watched Victor press his forehead against the door. Couldn't hear him sigh or mutter to himself and all at once he knew something was wrong.

"Vic?" He asked, not wanting to move from the spot, his toes curling inwards into his socks. All they had done for the past half an hour was roll on the bed, laughing and learning to kiss each other. Oh they both knew how to kiss, that was easy. The hard part was when you were with someone and finding out what they liked, what made their breath hitch and their heart pound. That took some time. Slowly they had fallen into each other, kissing softly and unsure at first before finding a rhythm that suited them both. It had turned quickly and Leeland had almost lost his t-shirt before they heard very loud and obvious whispers outside the door.

Turning to look at him, Victor rested his cheek against the doorframe and smiled. But Leeland could not tell what it meant. Whether he was happy or sad, it was just a smile and it bugged a part of Leeland that wanted to figure it out. "Ah've got to learn 'ow to read body language." He said out loud and Victor frowned at him as he crossed the room and stood in front of the taller boy.

"How come?" He asked but Leeland only raised one shoulder in response. "Then maybe…maybe ah'd figure out what that meant." He pointed loosely at Victor's mouth. A finger rested timidly on his bottom lip.

"Isn't that the point of getting to know someone? Figuring out what little thing's mean to a person?" Victor asked to which Leeland shrugged again.

"Ah guess so but it's 'ard." He'd been handed his powers with bang and bloody ears and he'd been able to do things with ease that would have taken him years before hand. Could once count all the words he knew in French and German on his fingers alone and now he needed thousands of hands. He was starting to wonder why people weren't that easy to figure out.

"Leeland." Victor sighed, brushing the finger away from his mouth. "That's the point."

"Well ah don't know! Ah've never done this before." He scowled, and Victor wondered for a second if a three year olds tantrum was on the way. Then what he said registered and a little smile buried its way into his mouth. "You telling me you've never kissed anyone before?"

Leeland's jaw clenched and his cheeks flushed pink.

"Aww." Said Victor with a teasing smirk, he couldn't help it.

"Don't rub it in!" He sulked and Victor shook his head, stepped forward and laced his arms around Leeland's waist. "I'm not. Stop being so agitated all of the time. No one's picking on you. We're just talking." Victor was coming around to realising that Leeland had a wall in front of him almost as big as his own. Where as Victor used his to keep people at bay and arm's length, Leeland used his to block out taunts and snide remarks. It was quite sweet and vulnerable in a rather pathetic way.

"Sorry." Leeland mumbled, wondering what to do with his arms and hands so he let them slip around Victor's own. Encircling them both.

"So you're nearly eighteen and you've never kissed anybody?"

Leeland shook his head. "Well 'ave you."

Smirking, Victor gave a roll of his shoulders. He wasn't telling.

"Loser." Leeland muttered to which Victor squeezed his hands tight. "Seriously though." He stepped apart from him and crawled upon the bed. Turning he laced his hands behind his head and rested against the headboard. Leeland followed, sitting at the end of the bed with only their feet touching.

"There was only ever one person ah wanted to kiss and…well 'e clearly wasn't interested so ah just put it to the back of mah 'ead. 'e was too busy boning girls at fourteen than wondering why his best friend wouldn't change in the locker room with the other lads."

The image of a smirking Brian appeared before Victor, younger with hair that didn't look like a rat had made it's nest in it. Perfect to Leeland. Victor figured as much.

"You never told him?"

Leeland shook his heard with a snort. "No. 'E may 'ave been my best mate but Brian an' me…Well sometimes ah got the impression he only 'ung around with me 'cos 'e 'ad to."

"That's bullshit." Victor said quite plainly but Leeland shrugged.

"I really just want to tell you that you're hopeless."

"An' you're green. Piss off an' when yah find better insult-" Leeland was cut short by a smack of a pillow to the side of his head. It took him a second or two to recuperate but he was far too slow. The next thing he knew, Victor was on top of him with the pillow and he had barely a second to laugh and grab a pillow of his own to defend himself.

Their laughter reached down the corridor and echoed out into the hallway. Logan paused for a second, a smile creeping up onto his old face and he gave a light nod of his head. "Well it's about time." He said in approval. There where too many sad faces around the institute. It was about time someone cracked a joke or two.

**End A/N:**

- The Phalanx Covenant" was a crossover storyline that ran through Marvel Comics' X-Men family of books in September and October 1994. For the fanfiction, the dates been moved to 1998.

*I've always been under the assumption that Victor was Jewish. I don't know why, maybe it's the name. I did some checking around and his last name is actually registered as Jewish-American so…I'm rolling with it. Really, I don't care what religion he is or he isn't. Just wanted it for that tiny little bit.


	23. Pick Your Words With A Little More Care

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited __on __15/10/2011.__ Cleaned__ up __a __few__ spelling/grammar __mistakes __and__ did __a __general __tidy __up._

**Chapter****23:** Pick Your Words With A Little More Care

The pillow's had been discarded at the side of the bed. They lay in a warm pile, curled around each other upon the carpet much like the two boys on the bed. The covers were a crumpled mess at their feet, tussled and twisted.

They had fought with the pillows until they had been deemed obsolete. For two boy's, play fighting seemed to be the way to go. Skin upon skin, light punches that would barely leave a mark and a surge of laughter when Leeland had finally been able to pin Victor to the bed. (Though he was rightly under the impression that Victor had let him win. After all, Victor was one with years of training under his belt.)

Pulling his leg up, Leeland wrapped it around Victors own as their feet pressed together. He brought his hands up and brushed shaking fingers against the bare green chest next to him. Couldn't take his eyes off of him, scared to look up at his face and swallowed the build up of spit in his mouth. It was like all his dreams had come true-literally. But now he could hardly move without shaking. Hardly speak without stuttering and he had no idea why.

There play fighting had been fun, adrenaline filled. Once they had stopped, panting for breath with sweat staining their skin, he had been able to think a little clearer. It was exciting, overwhelming and just that little bit daunting. Were they being too fast, or not fast enough? Leeland could not think straight.

"Leeland?" Victor asked, his arms coming up to wrap around Leeland's waist. The boy next to him stiffened, chewed on his lip nervously before quickly glancing upwards. "Ah'm sorry." He said quietly, a terrified smile on his lips. They had been fine at first, laughing and kissing-trying to learn as much as about each others bodies as they could. But once their t-shirts had come off, thing's had become slow and Leeland had started to shy away.

Sitting up, Victor left Leeland where he was and merely looked at him. Leeland followed suit, sitting up with his arms pulled around his own chest. His smile was shy and small and Victor found himself chewing on the inside of his mouth, at a loss of what to say. He looked over his pale form, the slight darkening around his nipples and the small flutter of purple bruises he gained earlier in the day.

"Ah've jus'…Well, ah've only ever done somthin' like this once and it didn't exactly end very well." He admitted and Victor frowned slightly. "I thought you said you'd never kissed any one."

"…ah never said _I _kissed anyone." He gave a small shy smile. "Ah was twelve Vic-" Victor cut him off with a short burst of laughter and Leeland kicked out grumpily with his foot. "Like ah said, twelve. Stood playin' football on the school field." He started, before turning his head to stare at the posters on the walls. "Three weeks into high school and ah'm stuck in goal. An' the other team is a bit shit so they're all off down the other end of the pitch. Anyway, there's this group of girls giggling just behind me-watching the match. All of a sudden, one of 'em comes up to me, leans up and kisses me." He leaned up and sneaked a kiss onto Victor's cheek but before he could pull back strong arms linked around his neck and refused to let him go.

"You know full well that doesn't count Leeland." He whispered before leaning into his ear and letting his lips graze across his piercings. The boy in his arms froze for a moment before shuddering and hiding his face in his dark green neck. "Piss off." He mumbled and Victor laughed while running his fingers through his hair. Soft and fluffy, it would not stay like that for long and Victor did not like the thought of running his fingers through something greasy and tangled. Maybe with Danger Room training he'd shower more.

"Hey Leeland." He called, but gained no answer. With a shake of his head he remembered and gently tapped the boy on the shoulder instead.

"Hmmm?" Leeland pulled back, his hands resting with unease in his lap.

"Let's get go get something to eat."

xxx

S.H.I.E.L.D Central, New York City was not publicly disclosed for reasons of planetary security. To everyone else it appeared to be a simple office-building, people went in and others came out. Unless you needed to go into the building-which many of the public did not-then there was really no reason to ever a batter an eye lid at it.

There were, of course, several good reasons for having a central base down on the ground rather than up in the sky with the rest of the hellicarriers. It was simple security that spread the law enforcement out to all corners of the Earth and the sky. It also meant Tony Stark could keep a closer eye on his new inmate.

He had had McCorby on surveillance since the moment they whisked him away from the Xavier Institute. The only thing he had demanded since being handcuffed and immobilized was his son's safety. Tony found it to be a slightly endearing if not annoying at the same time. It put the whole situation on a slight tilt that he could not control. The boy meant something to a lot of people and not everyone's intentions were good. And Tony knew he was slowly losing patience with the entire confusing problem.

The cells down in the depth of S.H.I.E.L.D central were more reinforced than any nuclear bunker. Nothing could break in and nothing could break out. There were guards at every entrance and several feet of steel each side of the cells.

McCorby was located at the end of security level five. He had no super abilities and so posed no threat in that sense. But he was still heavily guarded due to the rather complicated circumstances surrounding him.

"Mr. McCorby." Stark called from the entrance side of the cells. The defeated man barely looked up from the cot he was laid out upon. Hands where clutched upon his stomach, eye's staring intently at the ceiling.

"Oh come now McCorby. Don't be like this-"

"Like what Mr. Stark?" The man replied from his stoic position, cutting off the Iron Man. "I am no longer a man with rights." He started, voice trying to sound bored but it came off as clipped, angry. "I am to be judged in a country that is not my own with no trial. I am also to serve an indefinite sentence that may mean never seeing the light of day, or my son, ever again. Who, I may kindly remind you, was bleeding to death when your men dragged me away. So…" He sat upwards, swinging his legs around to place on the ground. With a turn, he peered through the bars at Tony with a look of pure annoyance. "Tell me Mr. Stark. How should I be feeling? Because really-I would love your input!" Sarcasm and fury fairly dripped from his words.

Stark continued to smile, and he motioned for one of the guards to open the doors to the cell. "I think you should feel elated McCorby. Your son is in a safe place-and he's fine by the way. Not bleeding to death or anything so dramatic and if you co-operate with us then I can keep you updated on his progress at the institute." Tony stepped inside the cell, his hands resting very comfortably in the trousers of his rather expensive suit.

"Co-operate how? I'm a wanted murderer. Oh wait. I'm a captured murderer. A human man with no super abilities or powers sat inside a jail for the super powered. The only question is…why?" McCorby did not trust Stark. Not as far as he could throw him and he knew there were ulterior motives at work. One did not spend nearly every waking hour of their adult life being a killer without knowing people inside and out.

"Why indeed." Tony surveyed the man on the cot with his five o'clock shadow of graying blonde hair and the dark heavy look under his eyes. "McCorby you broke into a mutant testing facility. Killed several of their scientists and guards and managed to slip away with a rather important weapon." That, it appeared, struck a nerve.

"Say that again?" McCorby rose to his feet and the guards aimed their guns. "Call my boy a weapon again."

"You said it yourself. He's dangerous. But certainly not on his own. On his own he's just a weedy kid with an aptitude for languages and a geeks wet dream knowledge of tech. Trust me, I'm on of those geeks. In the wrong hands however, he's dangerous. So we need to find these hands and quickly amputate them."

"And you want me to help?"

They stared at each across the cell and Stark gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "You and the late Kwon Sier are the only people, apart from the facilities victims, who have ever been that close-"

"So check the place out again. Heck I'll even give you the address."

"There's nothing there. The whole facility was flattened. The contact we did have turned up dead about a week ago. The one who supplied Emma with the information about the boy in the first place died years ago. Again, simply turned up dead like a warning. These people are operating again and I hardly doubt they want to give up on their first big break."

"Look…" McCorby started. "I can't help you. I wish I could, for Leeland's sake, but there's nothing I can give you."

"The man you killed four years ago did work for the facility Black Womb once upon a blue moon. Before he died he managed to tell them where you and your son were located."

"What? But that's impossible. They would have taken Leeland if they knew." McCorby frowned, a whole world of confusion filling his mind for a moment.

"Not if they didn't want him just then. Think of the money it costs to look after a child. And then think how much it costs to look after a child with super powers and making sure it doesn't die on you. You probably did them a favour."

Turning to the entrance of the cell, he held out his hand and one of the guards produced a file. "The facility had a parent company which was set up in the 40's. Know as Weapon Plus, it was used to combat the potential threat of mutants through the use of experimentation and eventually control." He handed over the file to McCorby. The man examined it dubiously before opening the pages. It revealed various names and experiments-things that really had no relevance to McCorby. Or so he believed.

"At the time the boy was being created, a new commission had gone through to relaunch the weapon X program. More money and time was put towards that program and the Black Womb facility was eventually shut down."

"I have a feeling you're not here to tell me it's been shut down and everything's rosy?"

Stark smiled, though it was not a happy one. It was one of those smiles used instead of a smirk. Very sure of itself, but certainly not happy. "Before our contact was killed, we were informed that the Facility is back up and running. Privately owned and running."

"Surely if you know that much, you can have it shut down?"

Stark shook his head and gave a slight cluck of his tongue. "If it was only that easy then I'd be sipping a whiskey on the rocks upstairs and not down here discussing all of this with you." He held McCorby's gaze for a moment. "It's there, we just can't find it. Unfortunately it's not keeping quiet about its presence. Depowered mutants have started to go missing-no word on mutants with powers just yet."

"Why…Just why are you telling me all of this? For peace of mind? I wouldn't think it was your job Stark to reassure the prisoner." Though to be perfectly honest, Jonathon was not feeling very reassured.

"I have an associate over with one of our sister agency's. The Sentient World Observation and Response Department deal with extraterrestrial threats-They're interested in Leeland."

McCorby found himself back on the cot, staring down at the meaningless file in his hands. "It seems everyone's interested in my seventeen year old."

"Well if any consolation, I'm more interested in you. I've told my associate she can't have Leeland. That he's safer with the X-men. But their base is on the moon, the air is pretty thin up there and whatever I say goes in through one ear and out through the other."

"You can't give him over to S.W.O.R.D!"

"Oh…You've heard of them then?"

"Heard of them? Stark you have a whole armory under your belt. What do S.W.O.R.D want with him?"

"More importantly, why do you care so much?"

The cell filled with silence as the two men surveyed each other. Stark's face was devoid of emotion, his hands still tucked securely in the pockets of his trousers. McCorby opened his mouth to ask what a stupid question that was but Stark spoke once more.

"Just testing McCorby. You haven't checked the back of the file have you?" He took out one hand, gestured for him to look. The man did so dubiously, hands gently skimming the pages of intricate words and cold photographs until he came to the very end. There was a picture attached of Leeland; it looked as if it had been taken at the institute without his knowledge. A tiny smile was apparent on his face, peering at something in distance that McCorby could not see.

"SWORD is interested in him because of what and who he is. They wouldn't if they didn't feel he wasn't a threat to anyone."

"But…but they only deal with extraterrestrial life forms and Leeland…Lee isn't-"

"You could stammer that out all day McCorby, it's not going to change the facts. So I have a proposition for you. Personally I don't feel that a man of you caliber really should spend the rest of his days rotting in a jail cell. I want you to head the team in charge of locating the facility."

McCorby looked upwards quickly, his eyes disbelieving.

"Under the condition that you don't have any contact with the boy. If you so much as step foot on the grounds of the institute then I hand the boy over to Abigail Brand and you'll find yourself back in here so fast that you won't even miss how that cot feels on a night."

McCorby was not a stupid man. His qualifications list may have left much to the imagination but he knew an empty open threat when he heard one. If was as if Stark had wormed his way into his mind and knew exactly how to puppet master his little strings.

"Think about it." Were his last words on the matter before turning to head from the cell. He did not get far before a voice stopped him.

"There's not much to think about Stark. You know full well I'm going to do it."

Stark smiled at nothing, his back turned from McCorby. He gave a sharp nod his head and a lazy wave of his hand as he left the cell. "Keep the photograph. I'll have someone fetch you in a hour."

xxx

Down in the kitchen, the two boys sat across from each other as they spooned ice cream into their mouths. They had little to say to each other since coming down from the bedroom, however the silence was not uncomfortable. It gave Leeland a lot of time to think about what had happened in the last twenty fours or so and how much of an impact it had-or was going to have-on his life.

He had come to terms with being a mutant. It was easy in a way, simply knowing he had the power within him all along. Made it easier to process. What was hard for him to understand was from where he gained the power. He no longer really knew who he was. There was a boy called Leeland, who grew up in England with his dad and had the normal childhood that every well rounded almost adult had. It was not perfect, and not everyday was happiness or sunshine. But it had been something constant.

Now there was a boy called Leeland who was not sure about what he was. There was a whole new life inside his mind, a past life in which he was far to young to remember ever happening. But it had happened, and without it there would certainly be no confused boy eating ice cream in the middle of the night with a green boy he had just learned to kiss.

A smile came to his face around the spoon. _Learned__ to __kiss._ That was right. He had kissed Victor, and he had kissed him back and there was a strange feeling in his stomach that still refused to go away.

"What's that for?" Victor broke him out of his grinning trace and he glanced across the table. The boy before him pointed to the smile on Leeland's face with his spoon before gently dropping it back into the bowl of vanilla caramel swirl.

"Oh…" Leeland began with a shake of his head, peering down at his mint choc chip and tilted his head this way and that at the pale green residue in his bowl. "It's strange…Ah want to feel happy but-…my dad." He pushed his spoon back down into the melting desert and watched as it slowly spill over metal.

"You Dad would want you to be happy. Wouldn't he?" Victor asked. He too smiled and rested his head on his hand. Leeland had not heard a thing Victor had said but that did not bother the boy. He wanted to be happy to, he really did. But what pulled at his own stomach was the idea that this was all happening far to fast. Had he not said that morning that he was not interested in Leeland like that? Did this mean their budding friendship was now gone and that they had to forge some kind of relationship?

Did he even want a boyfriend? Did Leeland? Of course one day he wanted to but when everything stopped being crazy and he did not have to fear for his own life because of the colour of his skin. "But I'm always going to be green…and it's always going to be crazy." He spoke out loud as he stared across at the mop of blonde hair. "So I guess…I guess this would be a good time to ask."

Leeland looked up with a frown. "Sorry, world of me own. Did'cha say summat?" He asked but Victor only shook his head, a smile tugging on the corner of his mouth.

"Are we still having our sleep over?" He asked simply, as if nothing wrong was implied or ever would be. "We can even stay up telling each other ghost stories. I'll even braid your hair." He smirked and Leeland playfully scowled at him.

"Loser."

"Bimbo. Said with affection of course." He smirked.

"Of course."

They glared at each across the table before warm smiles broke out and they tried to stifle the laughter as not to be caught out of their rooms during curfew.

Ten minutes later, panting for breath, they made it back up to Victor's room. After setting their bowls in the dishwasher, Victor thought he had heard a noise and the pair of them had scampered quicker than rats. They had both failed at trying not to laugh as they hurried themselves down the boy's corridor.

The room was warm, as usual, and the two of them crawled into the bed in just their boxers. Leeland was glad it was too dark to see anything as the pink on his cheeks was starting to make him look like an over ripe tomato. He had considered sleeping in his t-shirt but with the heat of the room it would have been soaked within minutes.

Luckily for him, the sheets were a little cool and he pressed his hands under the pillow. It was not completely dark in the room and Leeland could just make out Victor's silhouette. Not to mention that he felt the presence of his body half a foot away from his.

With the lights out he could not make out Victor's lips to read them so he stayed silent. Instead, with a little streak of courage, he snaked his hand out from under the pillow and found Victor's. Their hands laced together, tight at first and then a little softer as sleep over came the pair of them.

It had been a painfully confusing day and Leeland knew the next day would be no different. In the quiet dark with his body mere inches away from Victor, Leeland was certain that the next few hours of sleep were going to be the most peaceful he would have in a very long time.

xxx

The morning found Leeland curled up on the bed with the sheets tucked around his skinny form. The winter sun was trying to make it's way through the tree's outside, pushing along the carpet and up into bleary eyes. Licking his dry lips, the boy felt about the bed and found it to be empty. His first incoherent thought was that the previous day had been a dream and that he would wake up alone and cold in his own bed.

Blinking, he sat upwards, the sheet gently falling from him and he peered around the room. It was Victors. A tiny smile crept up onto his face and he pulled the sheets up towards his chin. It had been real. Everything had been real.

His heart sank a little bit as he remembered that not everything about yesterday had been good. Now his father was probably locked away in some damp dismal cell and his sudden thought was that he was never going to see him again. Surely even murderers were allowed visitors? However, the word murderer did not sit so nicely inside Leeland's head. It left a nasty taste behind in his mouth and he decided never to think that way about his father again. He was a good man. And Leeland was going to keep it that way.

Glancing down at the bed, a small sheet of paper caught his attention. It was folded neatly upon the pillow and the name Lee was scrawled out in Victor's very cursive script. He opened the little note and read:

Sorry I didn't say bye, had to run to class. You looked as if you could do with a few more hours sleep. Doctor McCoy wants you to meet him down in the infirmary at 11. Don't be late.

Vic.

There was a tiny little squiggle next to his name. Leeland spent several moments trying to decipher what it meant when he eye's glanced at the wall mounted clock. It was quarter past 11.

"Crap!" He fairly rolled out of the bed as he tried not to get tangled up in the sheets. Had to throw his clothes on and toe on his trainers as he ran out of the door. Then he stopped, gritted his teeth and had to run towards his own room. Rushing in, he grabbed up his little bag that contained his insulin and spirited as fast as his giraffe like legs would carry him.

Doctor McCoy was less than thrilled when five minutes later a very out of breath and twenty minute late boy finally showed up. The man stood with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes slightly narrow through his glasses. He watched as the boy bent over for breath, hands clutching at his knees. He stood up, waving his hands as he aplogised.

"S-Sorry…overslept." Finally straightening up, he pressed his lips together firmly and stood with his arms straight by his side. He had the faint impression that Doctor McCoy was still a little angry with him for the day before. He also did not think turning up late for an appointment was going to get him into the good books either. Though if he was being perfectly honest, he didn't know he was supposed to be meeting the doctor. Oh, he'd been staring.

"Over slept? I sent that message at half seven, you should have been up."

Leeland frowned. "Up? Why the 'ell did I 'ave to be up at half seven?"

"Your classes Leeland."

_Shit._ The boy had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be going to classes, trying to better his high school grades. But if he was already in college-oh, wait. He wasn't anymore. He really needed to talk to someone about that.

"Victor let me sleep in." He spoke without thinking and the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him.

"And is Victor your personal alarm clock, hmm?"

With burning cheeks Leeland shook his head and pressed his lips together.

"We'll talk about this later. I have someone I want you to meet." Turning, the Doctor walked into the infirmary and taking a deep breath Leeland followed. He was starting to really hate the room and it's cold clinical feel. Not even the whispering wires from the ceiling made him feel better; he could not hear them.

There was a man in the room he had never seen before. Perched on one of the side's with his arms crossed over chest, he smiled at Leeland when he saw him. With jet-black hair and a goatee, he could not have been more than ten years older than Leeland. Slipping from the side, he made his way over and held out his right hand. The boy stared at it.

It was a bionic hand that wound half way up the mans arm with wires that slipped into the skin. Shiny and metallic, it gleamed in the light of the infirmary and it was only when the man waved his other hand in front of his face did he realise he had been staring.

"S-sorry." He stuttered and stepped back a little, his hands raised to his chest. "Better not…Ah might make it grow extra fingers or turn it into a dinosaur." He said lamely.

The man could only laugh at him, clearly finding Leeland's mannerisms both peculiar and amusing. "Don't worry. I have a lot more control over my limbs than anyone else." He kept his hand up, a smile playing on his lips. "Go on…"

Pressing his lips together, Leeland stepped forward and pressed his hands into the man's and…nothing happened. Other than the strange twinge he always seemed to get around electronics and technology, nothing happened. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and the man chuckled.

"Leeland, isn't is?" He asked the mesmerized boy who nodded. "Well, call me Forge." He let go of the hand to gesture towards the quiet Doctor at the side. "Hank called me about your little problem with your ears."

"Forge is an old friend of the X-men. A bit of whizz with technology. With your power set I thought it would be appropriate to ask his help in the matter of fitting you with some heari-Leeland? Are you even listening?"

The boy had let his eyes wander away from the Doctor. He was starting at the ground with one hand at his left ear, nervously running his fingers over the metal hoops. He felt sick to his stomach and clutched the little bag of insulin close to his side. It was going to start getting warm if he did not hurry up and use it.

"Hank, why don't you let me talk with him…hmm?" Forge suggested knowing the look that passed the Doctor's face and it did not promise ice creams or butterfly kisses. The Doctor agreed, he had a training session to over look anyway and left. Albeit, it was a little abrupt.

Finally, Leeland looked up and blinked. He noted the Doctor was no longer in the room and pressed his lips together and tried his hardest not to sigh. "Sorry." He mumbled. "Ah think he's a bit annoyed with me still."

"Hmm." Forge nodded his head, arms crossed over his chest as he examined the boy in front of him. "He told me about the generator. That something happened in there and you won't tell anybody?" Forge surveyed him with an almost piercing glance. Leeland shuffled uncomfortably before shrugging his shoulders. "Nothing 'appened." He lied.

"So your ears decided to rupture on their own?"

Leeland was about to open his mouth to argue but Forge put his hand up and gave a shake of his head. "I'm not here to judge or to pry. If you don't want to say what happened, then it's your own business and no one elses. But I am going to have to do a bit of delving around your ears, see if we can't get you hearing again." He smiled but Leeland could only frown at him before it softened into something else. He was perplexed.

"But…but didn't Doctor McCoy tell you? Ah can't 'ear anyway."

Forge only smiled. "You let me worry about that. Come on."

One of the problems with training with so few students left meant that there was always going to be a pair unmatched. Unfortunately for Victor he had pulled a short straw and his training partner for the morning was Santo. He did not let it bother him too much though as Alani had been paired off with Sidney Green. Both boys were far larger than should have been possible for sixteen year old's, each with rock like bodies and a temper to match. Except Sidney was certainly the 'nicer' of the boys. When he wanted to be, that is.

One advantage for Victor being paired with Santo meant that he could work on his agility. Quickly slithering to the side and out of the way of a giant pair of fists. The boy could only wonder what would happened if the hands were to actually hit him. Luckily for him, Santo had been warned not to actually hit anyone. However, Victor's head was not exactly in the game that morning. He was slower than usual, his mind floating away to far off places that never were and probably never would be.

It had been a strange morning for him. Waking up curled around Leeland, the other boy practically dead to the world. It seemed that he slept better in the daylight and had barely stirred when Victor had pried himself away and out of the bed. He had contemplated waking him but it looked as if he could have just slept his worries away. A part of Victor hoped he would sleep his own worries away for him too. So he had left him to it, his mind a wash with thought after thought.

_You __kissed__ Leeland._ A voice in the back of his head had told him smugly. _Ahh__ but._ He began to argue. _He __kissed __me __first!_ Though that was not completely true. They had hugged, Leeland had kissed his nose and then…well Victor was not exactly sure what he had been thinking at the time. Some people would say not a lot in the circumstances but he had to disagree. It was like his mind was screaming at him to do a hundred and one things and not regret it until the morning.

"Borkowski! Are you even gonna try and pay attention?" Santo whined with a groan and let his arms drop to his side. The boy had managed to lightly smack the side of Victor's head when he had stayed stuck on one of the walls for far too long. Simply staring into space as if they were enjoying a walk in the park.

Victor rolled down and onto the floor, scowling up at the ceiling. "You're supposed to call me Anole, _Vaccarro_." Victor snapped as he wobbled to his feet and rubbed at his head with a frown. He was momentarily grateful for the carapace that protected his skull as he scowled up at Santo.

"Well I would do if you decided to pay any attention to me. You're supposed to be blocking and dodging."

"Oh." Said Victor, his hands coming to rest on his hips. "Is the great Santo complaining that he got a hit in?"

"That's not the point Victor." It sounded as if Santo had said that through gritted teeth, but Victor could not quite work out teeth from lips. Leaning down, Santo scowled at his friend and teammate before bellowing. "DOCTOR McCOY!" The simulation was halted abruptly and the sound of Alani and Sidney's annoyed voices could be heard across the Danger room.

"I'm calling time out." Shouted Santo straightening up.

"And I'm calling you a great di-"

"Victor." He was cut off short by the intercom and the Doctor's voice rang out around the room. "A word in your ear if you please. Onyxx, Loa team up against Rockslide."

"All Right!" Santo grinned and Victor was left staring up at the console room. With a heavy weighted sigh and a click of his tongue, he made his way out of the Danger Room and up towards his teacher. His mind was unfocused, he knew that and his training was not as good as it should have been. But he could not shake away the feeling that had settled inside his stomach. It was distracting him and teasing him. Like a yellow lollipop that kept dancing into view that he couldn't have.

Except he didn't like lemon flavoured anyway.

"Doctor McCoy?" He asked, stepping into the console room. His teacher had his back turned away from him, arms folded across his chest as he observed the students below.

"Victor, is yesterday bothering you at all?" The Doctor asked, half turning his body towards him with his eyes still focused on the training session.

Victor frowned as his hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. What part of yesterday did he even mean because there was plenty of it to actually bother him? "N-Not really sir." He said truthfully, a look of pure confusion on his face.

"The school went on lockdown because of a mass murderer and boy almost bled to death on you…and nothing is wrong?"

Victor's eyes snapped open. "A boy bled to death on my last year, remember. I've pretty much got that down to a fine art."

This time, Doctor McCoy turned to look at him, his expression unreadable. It struck Victor what he had just said and he had the good graces to look appalled.

"I…I'm sorry." He said quietly, staring intently at the ground. Where on Earth had that come from? Why had he let that slip out of all things? "I really didn't mean to say that."

"Of couse you did." The Doctor began and Victor's head snapped upwards. "N-No. No I didn't mean to say that."

"Why then, did you say it?" Doctor McCoy turned towards him with a small, yet sad, smile upon his cat like face. Bewildered and slightly upset, Victor could only shake his head. His mouth opened to say something but he could not think of the right words.

"A slip of the tongue Mr. Borkowski? Happens to the best of us." The man started gently as he made his way over to the boy. He had a sympathetic look on his face that Victor found it hard to look at. It was not sympathy that he wanted. "Did you tell Leeland to sleep in?" Came his voice, right in front of Victor and the young mutant shrugged his shoulders. "Looked as if he needed it. If yesterday counts at all." He muttered and for a second he wondered if he had over stepped the mark. Then he wondered if he cared.

"Ok." Doctor McCoy patted him on his shoulder. "Go and get showered." He started, heading back over to the window of the observation desk.

His head snapped upwards. "But! But I'm not done with training."

Doctor McCoy did not turn towards him. "Yes you are Victor. For today anyway."

Victor left the observation desk like an angry storm. Took all his might not to slam the door as his angry footsteps lead him off and away towards the showers. Ok, so he was a little off his game but there was no need for him to hit the showers. He had this down; he was fine, he was-

He paused, ears catching the sounds of conversation from the infirmary as he stalked past.

"…And if I tune them correctly, we could get you hearing correctly again."

"Yah mean ah could 'ear birds and stuff." Came Leeland's rough little accent and Victor felt the bottom of his stomach tighten. The other voice chuckled.

"And stuff, yes. But it may take a while to do and it won't be a quick fix. I can get them to work with your body, hear like you did when your powers emerged."

"Technically ah always 'ad 'em…they jus' didn't come out much. Erm, it won't 'urt will it?" He asked, voice wavering ever so slightly. It sounded as if he was trying to be brave and Victor could not help the little smile that curled around his lips.

"Might be sore for a while and some of that hair will have to go but, it's perfectly fine. Cochlear implants have helped thousands of people. We just need to fine tune these to work with your powers."

"Yah won't make 'em stick out will yah?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" He heard Leeland shuffle as he crouched next to the open door. The side of his mouth was becoming numb from his constant chewing of it.

"Ah already stick out like a sore thumb. Stickin' antennas into me 'ead ain't gonna 'elp." Leeland spoke as if it was supposed to be some kind of joke, all expenses on him. But Victor didn't laugh. Instead, he got up from his position from next to the door before striding past it and off towards the showers. He had wanted to stay and listen but it felt like an intrusion. And he had no idea Leeland felt that way.

Forge looked up from the plans he was showing Leeland as someone walked past the infirmary door. Their boots stomped on the ground a little louder then they should have done. Leeland watched as Forges attention was drawn towards the door and he glanced over his shoulder. No one was there.

"Who was that?" He asked as he turned back around but Forge shrugged. "Green kid. Can't remember him name." He said and watched with a small, bemused smile as Leeland gripped the side of the bed and worried terribly at his lip. It would not have surprised the man if the lip split along his piercing and caused an infection.

"Erm." Leeland started. "Ah 'ave to talk to 'im, can ah ju-"

"I have to start making up the plans for these so I get them made by the end of the week."

Leeland assumed that was a dismissal and he took off quickly, only remembering to mumble his grateful thanks over his shoulder. He hoped Forge had heard him. Outside the infirmary he took off in the direction of the showers and tried to think quick on his feet. Nerves wrecked his stomach, clouded his mind and made his hands terribly sticky with sweat.

The shower room was strangely empty when he had finally made his way towards it. Standing in the middle of the room, he took a deep breath and held it. Blood was rushing in his ears, stomach convulsing terribly and that was when he felt the fingers on the back of his neck.

He jumped, spun around and clutched at his heart as he stared wide-eyed at Victor and his slightly shocked expression.

"Holy crap!" He breathed out, bending down to clutch at his knee's and swallow the pool of spit in his mouth. "S-Scared t'crap outta me." He laughed nervously as he straightened up, and Victor was still staring at him with an unreadable expression. Chewing lightly on his lip, Leeland began to fiddle with the sleeves of his jumper as they both stood in awkward silence. He had to think of something to say. But, as usual, his mind had gone blank and he throat refused to work.

"We should talk." Victor found his voice and Leeland found himself nodding, but he was not sure why. Perhaps it was in agreement, or perhaps it was so he did not look like a blithering idiot.

"What's wrong?" Leeland asked as his stomach plunged itself into icy water. Something had to be wrong with the way Victor was looking at him. It made his heart race against his chest and nausea welled up inside his chest. Everything had been fine between them the day before, hadn't it? They had kissed, they were friends. They had slept practically naked wrapped around each other and-oh. Then it dawned on him. That wasn't normal. Was it?

"We kissed." Victor began. "Several times." He started slowly and it was then that Leeland realised that the other boy must have been in the progress of getting changed. Or at least ready for the shower because his zipper was down on his uniform and he stared at that piece of metal like it was a lifeline.

"And I was wondering what that-what…what are you looking at?" Victor peered down at himself when he saw that Leeland was not reading his lips. It made the blonde snap out of his trace and look back at Victor's lips with a hard stare.

"You didn't get a word of that, did you?" Victor frowned and Leeland shook his hand, a tiny smile working into the corner of his mouth. "Doesn't matter." He gave a shake of his head and there was a pause before he quickly stepped forward and pressed his lips against Leeland's.

He was a little bit shocked to say the least but he smiled around the kiss as it deepened. He had also forgotten what he was going to talk to Victor about. Then again, Victor had probably forgotten what he was going to tell him as well. It did not seem to matter any more.

Victor was not sure what was running through his mind. His objection had been to talk to Leeland, try and work out what-if anything-was going on between them. But then he had lost his train of thought and Leeland had smiled at him and his mind had become strangely blank. All he wanted to do was taste those metallic tasting lips again and push every sane thought he had out of his mind.

He pushed the taller boy backwards, arm curling around his neck and he bumped into him when Leeland's back hit a door. It was one of the changing cubicles and without a second thought; he pushed him into it and the door closed behind them with a satisfying click.

"Ah thought-" Leeland breathed out between a kiss, his hands clutched to shoulders of the boy in front of him. "-yah wanted to talk?"

"Do you want to stop?" Victor asked, as he pulled apart, giving him a questioning and searching look. Leeland was quick to shake his head, no, and Victor grinned. " 'Course ah don't. Kissing is…kissing is good." He said stupidly with a short-lived grin before his lips were captured again.

They grasped frantically at each other, their kissing not as reserved as it was the day before. This was harder, and certainly braver than either of them gave themselves credit for. Victor had wrapped his arms Leeland's chest, his fingers clutching to the back of the jumper. The cubicle beneath the back of his hands was cold but the boy he pressed up against was warm, his cheeks sticky with sweat. He could taste it with every press of their mouths. Every time his tongue darted quickly against Leeland's.

Squirming fingers moved quickly against the front of his uniform, grasping at the metal zip that was already half way down his chest. The kiss broke for a second and Victor tilted his head upwards to look into pale eyes. They smirked at each other, as Leeland pulled the zip idly back and forth. Neither pulling it up or down. Victor wanted to laugh, a grin spreading out across his lips as Leeland kissed his nose, his cheek and then his jaw line.

They were just about to meet lips again before the sound of Santo's rumbling voice froze the pair of them.

"Well I think I won!" He said smugly and Sidney had tutted next to him.

"It was a tag team, and Alani is pretty good." He said with a tired tone. Sometimes there was really no point in trying to argue with the mountain of a boy.

"Pff. Emphasis on _pretty__good_. She hasn't made team, and neither have you. That means I won."

"What! That doesn't even make sense! Besides, we don't have teams any more….not really."

Pushing his hands to his head, Leeland stared wide-eyed. He could hear Sidney's voice inside his head. Not crystal clear, not even a humanoid voice. But the little decoding beeps were back and they sat at the front of his head. As if taunting him with what he could not have. Really, he only gained half the conversation, but his heart still raced within his chest.

Victor gulped, his arms still wrapped Leeland's waist as his camouflaging abilities took a hold and Leeland was left staring at a wall. Well, not quite a wall. He could still somewhat see Victor, the contours of his body and the shadows beneath his arms. It was slightly unnerving.

Jumping away from him, Victor landed soundlessly on the little bench inside the cubicle. Leeland was left simply standing there, face flushed and jeans a little too tight at the top. With hands till pushed to the top of his head, Victor's face came into view and Leeland pushed his lips together as not to yelp.

"What's wrong?" He mouthed but Leeland shook his head quickly and Victor turned his face to look upwards. It looked as if he had decided something and turned back towards the other boy. He grabbed his by the back of his jumper and pushed him down to the ground before pointing underneath the stall. Turning towards him, he mouthed something again. "Crawl underneath it, get the end and when they go into the shower, run back this way." And Leeland was left lying on the floor, his legs bent at a very awkward angle.

He had no time to question Victor's methods as his blended back into the surroundings and fairly scuttled up the wall and over the cubicle. Leeland had no choice but do as instructed and he crawled on his belly underneath the cubicles. Couldn't understand why he simply could stay where he was.

As it turned out, Santo rattled the door they had been in before standing to peer over the side. When he saw nobody he shrugged his rock like shoulders and carried on towards the shower.

Leeland's heart was beating so hard he thought he was going to be sick. The adrenaline running through him made his want to grin and laugh. However, being pinned to a floor and dragging yourself along when you were more aroused than scared was not the most comfortable thing in the world.

But his mind was awash with images of Victor and the occasional snippet of Sidney's side of the conversation. He was not paying that much attention when he crawled out from underneath the stalls and straight into Santo's path.

"The hell?" The giant rock boy looked down at the long pale boy who had just squeezed himself underneath a stall and froze at the sight of his foot.

"Williams? What are you doing?" Sidney asked and Leeland turned his head to the side. Had to crane it at a rather strange angle so he could look up into the two giant rock faces.

"Uhh." Leeland started, staring into Sidney's face with wide eyes. He had no lips. Or even a mouth that he could make out. Is that why he could hear his voice inside his head? If that was true, then why had he not been able to hear the generator? Why had the generator taken control of Victor when it simply could do what Sidney was doing?

"Ow are yah doin' that?" he asked as he finally pulled himself out from the stall. Covered in dust and grit, he stared up at the other two (who were roughly the same height as he was. Though it seemed all three of them were still going through a growth spurt.)

"Do what?" Asked Sidney, rubbing the back of his head in confusion.

"Don't change the subject Williams, why were you crawling around on the floor?" Santo asked, stepping forward until his face was practically in front of Leeland's own. "Admit it. You're a spy." He pointed with one rocky hand and Leeland could only stare wide-eyed at it.

"Huh?"

That was when the two rock clad boys heard a snort of laughter behind them. They turned to see Victor with his hands on his hips; suit actually zipped up to the top.

"A spy?" He asked with a shake of his head, stepping forward and between Santo and Leeland. "Geesh Santo, you've come up with some strange idea's before but this has to be one of your most ridiculous."

Santo straightened up, arms folded across his chest. "Then what's he doing on the floor, being weird and stuff."

Victor opened his mouth to argue, but Leeland beat him to it. "No seriously though, ow'd yah do it?" He asked Sidney, walking to circle around him, as if examining him.

"Do what?" Sidney asked, shooing with his hands as if Leeland was an annoying little fly.

"Ah can 'ere yah inside me 'ead. Ah can't 'ere anyone else."

Sidney took a deep breath, from somewhere. "Do you see a mouth?" He asked, voice slightly annoyed and Leeland shook his head. No, he couldn't.

"Then how else do you think I'm going to talk to people?"

Leeland shrugged. He had no clue.

"Are you taking the piss, or are you just retarded?" He asked.

"Sidney!" Victor scolded but Leeland drew backwards, his bottom lip sucked up into the bottom of his mouth. He walked around Sidney, head bowed with the intent to leave the shower room with some of his dignity still intact.

"Leeland!" Victor called, but the boy couldn't hear him. He turned to look up at Sidney. "What did you have to go and say that for?" He asked, brows creased in annoyance.

Sidney shrugged. "Well I thought it was obvious how I talked to people. It's not my fault he didn't know." He said defensively, hands coming up to his chest when Victor lent in with a pointed finger.

"Didn't you used to get picked on Sidney?"

"What's that got to do with anything? It's not my fault if he's stupid."

"He is no-" Victor was half way through arguing back when Santo came between them. "We need to shower." He said quickly, and Sidney huffed before storming off towards the showers. That left Santo staring down at Victor. The green mutant pursed his lips to the side.

"I'm going to shower in my room." He said through gritted teeth and walked away quickly before Santo could yell at him to come back.

Leeland was nowhere in the corridor, or anywhere to be seen for that matter. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and moved up the corridor with his arms crossed over his chest. His head was a mess of conflicting words and actions. He had no idea why he had jumped on Leeland the way he had done. But he knew the idea of being found out was terrifying. And what, if anything, did that say to Leeland.

"You're an idiot Borkowski." He muttered to himself as he came past the infirmary. He glanced in, but there was no one there. With a shake of his head he trudged on back up the corridor, around the corner and almost collided with a jumper covered chest. Rubbing his nose, he looked up into Leeland's face and the boy looked just as shocked as he did.

"Ah...Ah was gonna come back and shout at 'im but…but then ah couldn't think of anythin' smart to say so. So…Ah'm not _retarded_ … That's an awful thing t'say." He scowled, hands shoving into the depths of his pockets.

"I know." Victor smiled. "I know and it was a pretty mean thing for him to say but don't listen to Sidney. He's got problems." He shrugged as if that would make everything better.

"Doesn't everybody." Leeland muttered and Victor had to agree with a nod of his head.

"Yeah, they do Leeland." They stood in silence, neither one of them speaking. The taller boy shuffled his feet, grounding the toes of his trainers into the floor and Victor stared at him with a look of indifference.

"Are we gonna talk then?" Leeland finally asked and Victor nodded his head.

"Yeah. But not here." He said quietly and Leeland nodded, not quite looking at him.

"Good." Leeland smiled, his hand coming up to trail over his ears. "Forge, the guy makin' my hearin' aids, says he's gonna be a while so-"

"Hearing aids?" Victor asked and Leeland nodded, chewing on the corner of his lips again. "Won't put you off me, will they?" He asked and Victor could only grin and shake his head.

"No Leeland. They won't put me off you."

Nodding, the blonde boy ran a hand through his hair. It looked as if he was struggling with words before he finally spoke. "What is this?" He asked and Victor gave him a peculiar look. "Ah mean…me an' you. What are we?" He fairly mumbled and Victor could only respond with a roll of one of his shoulders.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Friends?" He asked. He was pretty sure they were friends. Did kissing change that?

And Leeland smiled at that answer. "Yeah, we're friends." It seemed good enough for the both of them.

xxx

Forge pushed his goggles up to the top of his head when he heard footsteps heading towards him. He was in Beast's off limits laboratory getting to work on the cochlear implants. They be would be tricky to make so they did not interfere with the boys powers over computers and other advanced technology. But, he was fairly sure he had a solution.

"Hank?" He asked, when the fur-covered man came up to his bench with a slightly worn smile.

"Long morning?" He asked and the Doctor could only nod his head and sigh. "Something like that." He replied and peered down at the multitude of wires and delicate pieces. "I didn't want to tell you with the boy still in the room, he's still trying to adjust but…there's something you'll need to know before we get him hearing again."

"Oh?" Said Forge, straightening up with the goggles pushed up into his mess of spikey hair.

"And it seems that I'm breaking all of Emma Frosts rules of late." He added and grin split over Forges face. "Ooo, please tell me that what ever you're going to say will royally annoy her highness."

Hank smirked. "It will if we don't get her permission first. As Leeland's guardian she currently has parental rights over him. You'll need to know who his father is before we can finish those." He said, pointing down at the organized mess on the counter.

"And perhaps his mother. It'll make everything a lot easier." He tapped his chin, watching as the Native American straightened upwards and tilted his head to the side. Forge could only look at him with puzzlement before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, if it means having to talk to the ice queen or the kid doesn't hear, look's like we'll have to take the plunge."


	24. More Care And Tact

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited __on __16/10/2011. __Cleaned__ up __a __few __spelling/grammar __mistakes __and__ did __a __general __tidy __up._

**Chapter****24:** More Care... And Tact

Hank and Forge sat in Emma's office; the latter feeling more like a scolded schoolboy than a well-adjusted adult. It was not that he hated Frost, but re adjusting his own arm, stretching nerve and arteries, was a lot more bearable than her sharp icy face.

She stared at him across the desk as Hank explained the situation. Leeland's ears, the implants and how they were going to affect his powers. Those cold blue eyes bore into him worse than any drill bit had ever done. It was creepy, like she was already inside his head and poking around. Prodding at his brain and making him squirm in his seat.

"Emma he needs to know before he can fit the boy with implants?" Hank frowned, looking between Emma and Forge.

"Who the boy's father is." She said nodding, leaning back in her seat and Hank frowned. "And perhaps his-"

"Just his father. I'm certain Forge here doesn't need to know the child's whole family tree." She looked up the feline mutant, one slim eyebrow arched. "If you wanted permission Henry, you have it. Can't have the boy running around like _Vinton__ Cerf_."

"Why?" Forge asked. "Think he'd make something of himself." He said with no amount of amusement, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Emma looked at him with a smile curling in her mouth.

"You went here to school with his father." She said simply, catching Forges attention and he sat up in his seat with a frown.

"I'm not that old, Frost." He scowled, wondering if he should have felt insulted. But it had at least gained his attention.

Emma leaned back in her seat, her fingers laced over her lap but the smile was wiped clean from her face. Time to be serious, time to be professional and …nice. She was not as calloused hearted as everyone assumed she was. If that meant playing nice with Forge with a rather difficult subject, then she would do just that.

"Cypher." She started. "Douglas 'Cypher' Ramsey." And then she waited for the spluttering and the 'it can't be true' ordeal. Instead, Forge simply stared at her. Wide eyed, disbelieving, but not saying a word. She was a little disappointed when he said nothing but only stare. That was until he opened his mouth.

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" He spat. "Because I am not laughing." As he scowled his fingers gripped into the side of the armchair. It looked as if he would stand up if his legs were not stiff with anger.

"Does it look as I'm trembling with hysterics?" Emma asked coolly as not to snap. There was still no smile on her face as it really was not a laughing matter. "These are the facts Forge, if you don't like them then fair enough. No one is asking you too. Ramsey is the boy's biological father but he also has Technarch DNA, which is the reason you're in here. Fix the implants so his powers can't effect them and-"

Forge got up from his seat, walked swiftly across the room and slammed the door behind him.

"Hmm. He's not taking this as well as I thought he would." She sighed and looked up at Hank who simply frowned at her. "You could have been a little gentler." He started. "It's a confusing mess to sort out and we don't even have all the answers yet."

"And if he fixed the boy's ears without being told about Warlock, then what? Let him be confused, it's nothing to do with him."

Staring down at the Emma, Hank had half a mind to growl. "You have very little compassion, don't you?" The sharp-faced woman snapped her attention up at the Beast. The scowl on her face hardly did anything to dimple her smooth skin.

"Your right." She started and Hank's hard features softened into confusion. "I have very little compassion for a man who sulks, who slams doors because he can't act like an adult and do what's required of him. He may have gone to school with Ramsey, been on his team and yes, oh yes, he may be feeling angry that his late friends name is being blasted about in such a _confusing _manner. But I will _not_ be the villain in all of this." She stood up, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"I have a meeting with Stark. If you want to make Forge feel better then you explain everything to him. But drag my name through this McCoy, or my reputation, and I'll have you believing you're a common house cat by the week is out. I'd let you sleep in Nicky Gleason's room." Came her final threat as she left her office and the scowling man behind.

xxx

"Please." Forge started as he leaned against one of the sides in the lab. "Please tell me this is some big wind up?" He licked out over his dried lips and looked across at Hank with his dark eyes. Deep down though, he knew he saw something in the boy when he sat with him. The personality was not the same, not by a long shot but his smile, his eyes and the way he would fiddle with his fingers. "Dammit Hank, she better be lying."

Hank could only look at him with remorse. "I'm sorry but she's correct. In fact, I was the one who found out." He shrugged his shoulder, bringing his glasses into his hands to gently rub at them. The glass had been smudged and he set about cleaning it with the sleeve of his lab coat.

"Does the kid know?" Forge asked and Hank nodded. "He found out yesterday. Though I must say he's taking it better than you are."

"Oh, he's just a kid."

"He'll be eighteen in two days." Hank started glancing at the calendar, before peering down at the spectacles. "In the space of two months he's found out he's a mutant, was a government project, his father is in jail for mercenary and his biological father is either an alien or a twelve year old boy. Or both. He's taken it so well in fact that it's starting to worry me."

"Was it some kind of-oh I don't know, time travel?" Forge seemed quite beside himself. His mind trying desperately to work out everything he had been told but Hank could only shrug at him.

"That would be one way to make sure there was Technarch DNA implanted in there-"

"I can't do this." Forge started, hands coming up to his chest and he shook his head. "You promised if I came back here to do this then you wouldn't drag me back into being a dam superhero! Time travel. Government projects-

"Forge." Hank started.

"No!" He pointed his finger. "I'm not doing this. Doug was my friend and I won't let your drag his memory through this-"

"Forge, please be quiet." Through gritted teeth the Doctor gestured with head over towards the door. The young mutant stopped, his finger still pointing at his old teacher and he turned with a scowl before it softened.

Stood in the door way to the laboratory was the reptilian child and the blonde boy. They stood practically arm-to-arm; each staring with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Time travel?" Leeland asked, his face screwing up in confusion as he looked down at Victor who rubbed the back of his neck. For a second, Hank was distracted wondering how Leeland had even heard Forge. He had had his back towards them.

"Well that makes a bit more sense." The green mutant admitted quietly, as he too looked up at Leeland with a roll of his shoulders.

Forge was not sure whether Hank was going to shout at him or simply snap his own glasses in two. He didn't know the boy had been stood there. He certainly would not have said anything if he had known. "Hank-" He started, but the Doctor raised his hand to cut him off before crossing towards the door. The boy stepped backwards shaking his head.

"You weren't even gonna tell me, were you?" He asked, a hurt scowl coming to his face, lips pursing together in annoyance.

"Leeland it's not like that. " The Beast started gently but the boy shook his head again.

"Then why not tell me?" He asked, a whine coming to his voice that made Forge sigh and step forward.

"Because Leeland, then you'd be as confused as we are." He glanced at Beast. "Doctor McCoy was not planning to tell you until he knew himself. That way you could get all your answers and you wouldn't be pulling that kind of face." He started gently and watched as the boy looked at each one of their faces and then back again. Slowly, he licked over the metal in his lips and for a moment it looked as if he was struggling with something internally.

"Ok." He whispered, peering down at his trainers before glancing up and over at Victor.

That had been…easier than Forge thought it was going to be. He straightened up, now reassured that the bomb had been defused and the boy was not going to scream at them. Heaven knows what that would have done to the lab and all it's delicate technology.

"Lee?" Victor started, and from the tone of his voice he sounded as if he wanted to challenge what the adults had said but the blonde shook his mop of wild hair. "No Vic, it's all right. If they say they don't know then..." He shrugged his shoulders. "Then ah'm gonna believe 'em."

Five minutes later all four of them were sat in the lab in a strange silence as Forge worked to take new measurements of the boy's ears. Leeland had suspected it was just so he could keep his hands busy. Doctor McCoy had tried to shoo Victor away by giving him a hard stare, but the green mutant had not budged and in the end Leeland had to say it was fine. That he wanted Victor there. And he did, of course he did.

"Doctor McCoy." Leeland began, just as an ear thermometer found it's way into the side of his head and he tried desperately not to cough. "Yah forgot one thing." He said and the feline like mutant frowned at him.

"Oh. And what would that be?"

"Best friend turns out to be a Warlock with skills to rival _Dumbledore_." He smirked and in return he gained a smile from the good Doctor who nodded his head. "Indeed I did."

"Isn't _Dumbledore_ dead?" Victor asked suddenly and Leeland rolled his eyes. "That's besides t'point Victor. Still pretty cool with the whole teleporting thing didn't yah think? Not the pukin' afterwards but-what?" He realised they had all been staring at him, each one with a slight smile on his face.

"Oh shut up!" He scowled, cheeks turning pink as he ducked his head down and out of Forges grip. The man could only laugh at him, took his head again and seemed to decide something quite quickly.

"I'm going to make you some temporary hearing aids." He started and Leeland gave him a perplexed look. "They won't be as strong as implants, and you'll still have to read peoples lips. Muffled beeps and dashes but you'll be able to sneak around corners and know someone's there." He said with a smile that promised mischief and Leeland couldn't help but grin.

"Leeland?" Doctor McCoy spoke up and Leeland turned towards the cat like man who had been annoyed with him all morning. His face seemed softer now, kinder. Leeland wondered what he had done right to gain such a look.

"When Forge and I were talking before, how did you hear us?" He asked. The boy thought for a second before rolling his shoulders and he leaned back slightly to point at Forges hand. Then he frowned and tilted his head to the side before also pointing at the mans leg.

Forge smiled, leaned down and tapped the top of his leg. The satisfying sound of metal being wrapped echoed softly around the room.

"Ah'm not really sure. See, I 'eard Sidney talkin' to Santo when I was…well-" He glanced at Victor, felt his cheeks burn before quickly turning away. "Anway, ah could 'ear Sidney without seein' 'im. When ah asked 'im 'e jus' looked at me as if ah was stupid which…" He trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck with a roll of his shoulders.

"Ah." Started the Doctor, a smile on he wry lips and he nodded his head. All the little pieces of the information slipped together and made a perfect picture. "Sidney communicates telepathically. That's not to say you are telepathic, only that it's a way of communicating and so, you could hear him."

"And Forge…" The other mutant pulled his hands away from Leeland's head, holding out his arm that transformed itself into a shinning gun and Leeland gulped. He stared with wide apprehensive eyes as Beast went on to explain the boy's ability to communicate with all technology. So by definition, if Forge were to speak, Leeland would be able to hear it through his technological arm.

"You-" Victor started; hand pointing at the gun arm and Forge could only grin. "I thought people were just making that up!" He exclaimed, eyes staring at the strange appendage that looked like a ray gun from the future. A strange grabbing implement that the boy's were certain could fire something if he wanted to.

"Oh no." Forge grinned happily. "Can't make believe this up. Lost it in an accident, leg too." With a wrap of his knuckles, he made contact with his leg again and a dull thud sounded out around the laboratory. "Made them myself." He spoke proudly and Leeland could not see any reason not to be. The boy could not think of the right words to express how brilliant the prosthetic was.

"It's…it's really cool." He settled on, as he was not able to quite articulate what he wanted to say. Not without gushing how brilliantly designed it was without actually knowing how it was designed. He simply had the knowledge that it was well put together. And that was as far as Leeland's knowledge went.

"Yeah." Forge grinned, licked over his lips and glanced once at Doctor McCoy. "Doug helped me tweak them a few times." He said offhandedly with the roll of one shoulder and Leeland's pale green eyes went as wide as saucers, his grin even wider. Without thinking, he gripped the side of the bed both boys were sat upon and leaned forward in anticipation.

Doctor McCoy took the hint and cleared his throat. "Victor, I need a word with you." He said with a bright grin and the boy could only look at him with a blank expression.

"What? Again?" He asked perplexed but when he glanced at Leeland who was looking enthusiastically at Forge the penny dropped. "Oh." He began, nodded his head and jumped down from the table. With a smile, he glanced over his shoulder, shook his head and dutifully headed after his teacher.

"See Doug always complained about not being taken into the field. With such a passive power, it was dangerous for him." Forge explained, his gun arm changing into a drill bit with a flick of his wrist and Leeland almost fell onto the floor from excitement. Couldn't explain it even if he wanted to. The very idea of how such an amazing mutation worked was zigzagging across his mind and making him grin like an idiot.

"He used to tell me that he didn't feel much like X-man. Sort of a spare part that the others used to complain about having to protect. God knows, they loved him but…" He shrugged, letting the words hang in the air. Leeland shook his head, he didn't know.

Forge pressed his lips together, turned his hand back and surveyed the boy before him. Of course he could now see little fragments of Doug staring back him. In was strange, frightening almost. Like a ghost had crawled out of his grave and sat before him in updated clothes and shaggier hair. Certainly not a spitting image, but most definitely an overlay.

"He never felt much like a x-man. Neither did I, so I guess that's what made us friends. We where outsiders in this little exclusive club."

"An' when 'e 'ad Warlock with 'im, it was even worse right? Like 'e 'ad a baby sitter?" Leeland asked, hands still gripped the bed beneath him and Forge nodded his head. Turning, he made his way over to one of the workstations and gestured the boy over. It looked like a workbench inside a mechanics garage. Covered in scraps of metal and wires, blue prints and other little thing's that Leeland did not know the name of.

"They were the best of friends. Like brothers, bonded for life. Sometimes it was like watching a married couple." Forge laughed, a grin illuminating his face and he shook his head sadly.

"You miss 'im." Leeland needn't have asked, but he glanced up at the older mutant in anticipation. He missed his father terribly and there was certainly more to him than met the eye. However, here he had the opportunity to find out what his real father was like. The biological genes that ran through him, and made him who he was, were crying out to know. However, a part of him felt like it was betraying his Dad who was now sitting in some prison rotting away and he would never see him again.

Nodding, Forge picked up two sets of goggles on the counter and handed one pair to Leeland. The boy looked at them inquisitively before placing them over the top of his head and affixing them around his eyes. The straps dug in around his ears and he winced, pushing them upwards and into his hair that stuck out around them at odd angles. It was getting ridiculously long and he seemed to have no intention of ever cutting it short.

"I'm going to solder your temporary hearing aid's together so you should be able to have them pretty soon."

"Couldn't you make 'em stronger? So I don't 'ave to 'ave metal stuck in mah 'ead?" The boy asked, chewing on the side of his lips and Forge quirked his head at him. He surveyed him behind his dark eyes and gave a warm reassuring smile.

"There's nothing to be worried about." He reassured. "This is a good thing. You'll be able to hear somewhat properly. The x-men will get you trained up and then the world is your oyster kid."

Leeland shrugged. It sounded wonderful and it was something he hoped he could do. Learn how to use his powers, leave the institute and finally finish his college course and go off to university. (Luckily he got into college on a fluke, they wanted to know if he could read and write, not paint. But he knew deep down he was good enough to get onto a decent art degree course.) However, the boy suspected that was only something 'normal' people could have. He was coming around quickly to the idea that he was not normal. There was still something there in the back of his mind, secrets being hidden from him and all around hush hush about where he came from, who made him and for what purpose.

When he looked back at Forge the man was busy with his soldering gun and he didn't want to bother him. Instead, he let a comfortable silence fall around them as he let the man work.

"Leeland." Said Forge, out of the blue and still concentrating on the pieces of metal and wire.

"Huh?" The boy had been staring off into space.

"What is it that you want to do when Miss Frost's reign of terror over you ends?"

Leeland frowned as he thought about the question, and then smirked at Forge's phrasing. "She's ain't that bad." He admitted with a shrug but Forge would only let a cruel little smile curl his mouth. "Ah dunno. Ah guess find out where ah came from an' why. Ah'd ask me Dad but-" He shrugged again and stared off and around the laboratory with all its technology and silent whispering cables. Fingers played with the table top in front of him and he turned to peer at Forge. "I don't think he'll be allowed visitors for quite a while." He blew out a sigh that he didn't realise he'd been holding and clicked his tongue.

"Time travel." He shook his head, wanted to laugh but couldn't find it within him to do so. It was quite laughable but he knew something darker was afoot and so he kept his amusement to himself. It was not funny when he considered Doug's position within everything. Why, it was down right terrifying.

"Work's best when you try not to think to hard about it."

"Hmm." Leeland nodded. "Said the man with a gun for an arm."

xxx

"You suggested what?" Emma had her coffee cup raised half way to her mouth. She was sat in Tony Stark's office, admiring the view he had over the city and only really half listening to what he had to say. McCorby's name cropped up several times but it was only when he mentioned that he was now heading the investigation into the facility did she really start to pay attention.

"I didn't suggest it Emma. Well-" He smiled. It was the grin that usually got him off the hook with Frost, but clearly not this time. "I did suggest it in the beginning but now I've made it official. McCorby will be heading the special operations team I've put together to look into the disappearance of depowered mutants."

"We specifically said that X-men were going to deal with that." Emma spoke between pursed lips before she took a sip of coffee that washed itself over her tongue like bitter soap.

"That was before your little problem of the boy crept up. The x-men have too much on their plate all ready. Surely your only job should be to protect your students."

Emma did not reply, only held him with a cold gaze.

"He's not going to have any contact with the boy, if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not." Emma said firmly. "Why would I have a problem with a man seeing or even talking to the child he's raised as his son for the past seventeen and half years."

Stark could only look at her with bemusement and wonderment. Rolling her eyes, Emma turned to peer back out of the city. High up near the clouds, she felt as if she was on top of the world and nothing could bring her sharply back to the Earth. Of course that was entirely wrong but the sentiments were still the same.

"That boy is not my son. Genetically, yes. There's no denying that. What was taken from me was only a handful of cells. A tiny spec from the bigger picture. Knowing past track records, there's probably thousands off him." She turned to look at Stark, her emotions unreadable. "I've never had any intentions of ever raising that boy as my own as that would be a lie. When he was three I asked his father whether he was would be interested in a place at my school. The offer was politely declined and I left it at that. I forgot about him, put him to the back of my mind and focused on what was in front of me." She really had no need to divulge any of this to Tony but it seemed that she wanted to set the record straight.

"Different story with your girls though. The triplets." Stark leaned backwards in his seat, a serious expression oh his usually playful face.

Emma did not respond. She was under no obligation to speak to Stark about any of her peculiar family matters.

"I don't want McCorby heading this operation Stark."

"And why ever not? He's the only person alive to ever get in and out of the facility."

"Yes, but he's also too close to the situation."

"And you're not, how?"

Emma took a deep breath in through her nose and held it for quite awhile before she crossed the room over towards Stark's desk. Leaning down, she pressed both hands firmly onto the polished wood and stared at him, hard.

"If anything happens to that boy's father, then let it be on your head Stark. If he decides to come in here looking for revenge, I certainly won't stop him."

The Iron Man laced his fingers over his stomach but his smile had vanished. "Why do you care so much Emma? It seems to me that you're terribly contradicting yourself."

"Stark." She started, straightening up. "In a few years time, when a woman decides she's going to take reign over you with a heavy ball and chain, and oh she well. You'll be cooped up in a penthouse with junior Iron Boy running around, probably destroying the place. Oh and you'll only be able to look at him with a giant grin when he's smothered poster paint on an early Rembrandt. Then. Then you speak to me about double standards."

xxx

Leeland had not slept. At all. Not one wink. Well, perhaps a snooze or two here and there. He was also was pretty sure that once daylight had hit his windows that he had been out for the count. When he finally awoke, it was still early and the birds outside his window continued to play their morning song.

With a hand clamped to his messy hair, he turned to glare at the clock and tried to make the numbers out through bleary eyes. It was almost seven thirty in the morning and he groaned before throwing himself back down into the covers. They were warm, inviting and in his midst of not sleeping he had managed to make a half nest, half cocoon concoction out of the duvet and comforter. He had just begun to close his eyes again, ready for more sleep when something clicked inside his mind.

It was December the 6th. He was eighteen years old.

Birthdays had stopped making him excited when he was twelve. He wasn't sure why, but the happy floating feeling in his stomach did not make him giddy with glee any more. Of course that did not mean he was sad or unfeeling. Quite the opposite. A smile creased his lips as he spread about on the bed, glancing up at the strange light on the ceiling. It was still quite dark outside, only a sprinkling of light trying it's hardest to break through the curtains and trees.

Pushing himself upwards, Leeland glanced up and stared at the wall opposite his bed. It was one of his picture-clad pieces of the room and he pressed his lips together when his eyes scanned the illustration of his father.

This would be his first birthday without his dad. Without anyone, actually. In a different country that he was still trying to get used to and a whole new path emerging before him.

A part of him wondered if this meant that his idea of a birthday had changed? He felt no different than he had when he awoke the day before and he had the sneaking suspicion that he would feel just the same the next day.

Birthdays meant something completely different to him now. The 6th of December probably was not even his real birthday. He could have been eighteen for almost two weeks and he would not have known. It didn't make him sad, just thoughtful to the idea that eighteen years before a baby had been born in a secret complex. That everything was white and clinical and executives slinked their champagne glasses together because the product had been successful.

Pressing his lips together, he scowled. He was not going to think like that. It was his birthday and he was going to eat junk food, down alcohol and then puke until his liver begged him no more. With a grin, he threw of the covers, pulled on the nearest clothes he could find (after the all important sniff test) and headed to the bathroom.

Whilst he brushed his teeth, Leeland stared at himself in the mirror. He stared so hard that his vision tinged pink and teal with little stars that danced before him. The hair was still a wild blonde mess, untamable by anything but grease. Fortunately for his hair, he had washed it the night before and now it was fluffy, slightly frizzy and just a little to stupid to function. Maybe he'd brush it? Maybe cows would land on Jupiter and proclaim they had discovered slugs with Manchester accents?

The freckles on his face made him seem younger still and when he leaned into the mirror, he spotted no hair on his chin. He wasn't sure whether to be pissed about that or content. After all, no shaving meant not awful rash or looking like a hobo when you forgot one morning.

Spitting the foamy paste out into the sink, he rinsed out his mouth and snapped his head up to glare at his reflection. "Yah wanna be taken seriously? Then sort yah self out..." He smirked before pushing off the porcelain to turn towards the door.

Victor had been watching him with a bemused smile curled around his lips.

"Shit! Christ! Dammit Victor!" Leeland jumped, his hands clutching at his chest as he glared at the laughing boy before him.

"Oh…" Victor sighed, pretending to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes. "Oh that was too good to be true. Do you talk to yourself often?" he asked cheerfully as Leeland scowled, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm. He pushed his arms around his chest and pouted until Victor snorted with laughter, leaned upwards and ruffled his hair.

"Hey!" Leeland threw his hands up to the top of his hand, shooing away Victor's hands. "You'll mess it up even more if yah do that." He huffed, trying to see if he could flatten the mess on his head that called itself hair.

Victor clucked his tongue and shook his head. "You're not allowed to be mean to yourself Leeland. Especially not today." He said pointedly as Leeland peered at him with a perplexed expression.

"Why?" He asked.

"You…You're kidding me, right?" Victor started as Leeland shrugged his shoulders. "One; being mean to yourself is not going to boost your confidence. And two, eighteen year old adults don't get to sulk on their birthday."

"Oh that."

Victor could only stare at him. "What do you mean oh that? It's your birthday!" He exclaimed and Leeland was quite surprised when he did not throw his hands up in the air to show how happy he was. It seemed that Victor was more glad Leeland was eighteen than the eighteen year old himself. Funny that.

"Ah don't wanna cause a fuss." He said shrugging his shoulders again, and he tried to move out of the bathroom. However, Victor's hands came up to block the door.

"Cause a fuss? Dude, you're living with X-men! You're allowed to have a fuss after…well." He pursed his lips as Leeland stared at the light switch, seeming to find it more interesting that what Victor had to say. "Besides, heck of a lot of kids, hardly any teachers to watch us and now we have an excuse to party."

Leeland's head snapped back around to face the green mutant, eyes wide. "No Victor!"

"No what?" Victor asked as he turned, finally letting Leeland out of the bathroom.

"Ah don't…I-" He stopped; staring at the other boy who turned and shoved his hands deep into his pockets, a wicked grin on his face.

"Ok, who are you an' what did'cha do with mah friend?" Leeland glared suspiciously and Victor could only laugh at him again.

"What? Oh come on Lee, don't look at me like that. I…" He sighed, and took one hand out his pocket and pressed it to the back of his neck. "You get your implants in two days, and you'll be out of it for days, if not a couple of weeks."

"Forge says I'll be fine by Christmas."

"But I'm not going to be here." Victor stated simply, looking at the skirting board and rubbing his neck. He did that when he was nervous.

Leeland had completely forgotten that Victor would be going home to Illinois to see his parents for the holiday season. That also meant that he would not be back until sometime in January. What with the recovery process for his implants, it was likely that he would not be able to see Victor properly for well over a month. His stomach did not seem to like that idea and it flopped over dramatically and caused him to wince.

"Oh." He began. "I'd forgotten."

But when Victor looked up at him, it was with a grin that spoke of mischief and of mayhem. Now Leeland was certain that someone had switched his friend.

They still had not had their 'talk', which they had promised each other a few days before. It seemed to hang in the air around them, went unspoken. However, neither of them seemed very eager to talk about it. They where not exactly dating. (A highly American concept that Leeland didn't quite understand.) Yet they were a bit more than friends.

They did not hold hands as they walked down the corridor, but they stood close enough for skin to brush against skin. There seemed to be no need to declare what they had (assumed you had to have someone before you declared it). They where simply…being. They kissed, the groped and sometimes they woke up wrapped around each other and sometimes they did not.

It was content and confusing for the pair of them but what wasn't these days?

After a few minutes of walking, and of Leeland assuming they where heading towards the kitchen, Victor turned abruptly down an off shot corridor.

"Uhh, Vic? Where are we headin'?" He asked, trudging along after his friend. Glancing at his surroundings, Leeland came to the conclusion that they were coming up towards some unused classrooms. With their being so few students, the schooling took up all of three classrooms. These were not classrooms that he had ever been in.

They came towards a door labeled _music_ and Leeland frowned as they walked into it.

He remembered the music department from high school; neglected and dull. There were two annoyed music teachers who had to try and deal with year's seven to nine who used their lessons as extensions of lunch. The year ten and eleven who took the class on for their GCSE's were no better. Leeland was one of those students. He used his time to sit and mess around with the guitars, hardly took notes and was once kicked out into the corridor for throwing a pair of drumsticks at a particularly annoying girl.

The classroom they had entered was a different site all together. The hard wood flooring beneath their feet was clean and polished within an inch of it life. Large bay windows let the December sun filter through and shine upon an array of instruments that lay unused and slightly forgotten. It looked more like a large dance room with its wooden paneled walls and black grand piano sat majestically in the corner.

"Whoa." Leeland started with a grin as he looked up and around the room. Standing in the middle of it, he could really take in the tranquil beauty about the place. There were off shoot doors towards smaller classrooms and one of two sound booths. He almost felt giddy with delight.

"Didn't you say you used to play the guitar?" Victor asked form behind him, hands deep inside his pockets as he gestured to the instrument by his feet that rested in its stand.

The blonde's mouth dropped. "Is that…is that a Stratocaster?" He asked, almost giddy with glee and Victor took a second to look at the guitar before shrugging. "Err, I think so."

"Yah think so!" Leeland exclaimed as he came forward, hands twitching in anticipation.

"It's a fender." Said Victor with a shrug. "I know that much." He laughed when Leeland looked at his with a "are you stupid, this is awesome!" look.

"These are like brand new. They cost….they cost so much." His voice was barely a whisper as he stared at the silver coloured guitar that seemed to gleam in the light.

Victor had wanted to say that it was just a guitar, but he did not want the excited look to drain from Leeland's face. It always looked better when he smiled.

"An American standard Stratocaster, with…with hand-rolled fingerboard edges and staggered V pick ups. Back 'ome I have an Ashton D55 Acoustic, practically the same colour but pretty battered. Used to lug it to school on the back of Brian's bike. BMX's are hard to get up hills when a'hm on the back of it." He grinned, remembering once when he had let go of Brian's shoulders, flew of the pegs and his uncovered instrument had skidded into the road. His dad had shouted until he was blue in the face and Leeland had to run and fetch him a glass of water.

"You can pick it up you know?" Victor stared, wondering why they were still stood there in silence but Leeland shook his head, hands coming up towards his chest.

"No way! What if ah break it?" he asked with a squeak.

"And what if I told you it was yours?" Victor shrugged, pushing his toes down into his trainers as Leeland snapped his attention towards his friend. It looked as if he was about to pass out.

"Don't look so worried…I…" He began rubbing his beck again. "When Doctor McCoy spoke to me yesterday I asked him. Told him that no one at the school was actually using it and you said the other day about wanting to play again so…" he shrugged. "I know I didn't buy it and all, and technically it's still the school's but…It's yours until you can get your own." Victor finished with a smile. He wanted to hear his friend play but Leeland looked suddenly terrified.

"Ah…no, ah can't." He said quietly with a shake of his head. "It's…it's a real nice present Victor but ah-"

Victor huffed, picked up the guitar and practically thrust it at Leeland as he slipped the strap over his neck. Turning he stalked over towards a chest of draws as Leeland started protesting behind him. He found a set of plectrums and picked up a green one before turning back around and holding it out to the taller boy.

"I set up the amp as well." He said quietly. He did not know how to play the guitar, but that didn't mean he couldn't set something up. All he had to do was flick the amplifier on.

Leeland gulped as he took the offered piece of plastic and noticed it was a little thick. But he decided against saying anything, held his tongue and gave a nod of his head. And Victor beamed.

The blonde licked out over the metal in his lips as he peered down at the expensive and beautiful guitar in his hands. Chewing on the corner of his mouth, he sighed and reluctantly gave in and hoped to God it was tuned because-"Ah can't hear it." He said quietly, not looking up from the instrument. The devices currently resting inside his ears were temporary and basic. He could just make out what people were saying, but if they glanced away from him the beeps became mumbled and quiet. They were frustrating and he had had half a mind to take them out. Forge, however had advised against it. Said he needed to get used to having them there.

Victor's brilliant grin, fell from his face. "Oh…" he stared with a confused frown before he eyebrows came up in almost horror. It made Leeland want to laugh. "I am so sorry." He started as Leeland shook his head and grinned. "I didn't think that-wait…why are you smiling?"

"It's fine." Leeland laughed but Victor still looked horrified. "No really." Leeland shook his head. "Ah can still play…It's just ah'll-akk you'll see. Name a song."

"A-anything?" Victor asked with an arched of an eyebrow and Leeland pursed his lips to the side.

"Well not…Hmm. Do you know _Surf__ Wax __America_?" He asked and Victor shrugged his shoulders. "It's by _Weezer_?"

"Oh…err, I guess so."

"Well you'll to hum along, or sing 'cos ah can't." he grinned, licked over his lips and bent down to flick on the amp (and turn the volume down as Victor jumped when he accidentally brushed against the strings). Straitening back up, he took a deep breath and let his fingers rest on the fret board, moving them into position as he tried to remember just how the chords went.

It had been months since he had last had his hands on a guitar. The year of practice it took to stop his wrist cramping had almost whittled away to nothing. When he pressed the buds of his fingertips into the steel wires they almost screamed at him. It was a pain he had grown accustomed too and over the years his fingers had hardened to take no notice. Without that constant playing, his fingers had started to soften again. It would be like learning all over again.

"It's…been a while." He started and then began. The intro was quick paced, delving right into the song and he knew within ten seconds there was supposed to be someone singing, or at least humming. Victor had only watched him with a little grin in the corner of his mouth that stopped when Leeland stopped playing abruptly.

"Don't stop!"

"You're supposed to be humming…or singing!" Leeland whined back, but he couldn't help laughing and Victor rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. But I don't really know all the words. How about I talk sing?"

"Talk sing?"

"Yeah, I'll just say the words…Can't sing." He shrugged, a smile curling around his lips.

"Ok." Leeland nodded his head, licked over the top of his lip and started again. Though it did not go quite as smooth as either hoped. Victor started laughing when he tried to remember how the song started.

Leeland shook his head with a grin; his fingers running down the neck of the guitar as he let his strumming fingers worked the plectrum against the strings.

In the end, Leeland simply played, trying hard to concentrate on the strings between his fingers. With his tongue pressed between his teeth, a grin started to appear on his face the more he got into the song. Right until the middle of the song were it flowed away quietly, the boy simply trying to remember the words but not wanting to sing them (Victor's ears didn't need to be insulted by that.) Then right back up into the fast pace and the song finished, the boy's fingers still lightly playing with strings. Couldn't hear it, but the feeling playing gave him made him smile anyway.

When he looked up, he realised Victor was simply watching him. His hands were pressed into his pockets once again and he looked up and down the blonde with a nod of his head.

"What?" Leeland asked quietly.

"You look happy."

Looking down at the instrument in his hands, Leeland nodded his head and started to pull the strap over his head. Turning the amp off, he placed the guitar neatly back on the stand and simply shrugged his shoulders with his lips pressed together. "Playin' makes me happy, and drawin' and…you know."

Victor shook his head as he pushed of the little chest of drawers he was leaning against. "Nope, I don't really know."

"Hmm. It doesn't matter. Thank you."

"Oh come on. You can't start then not tell me." Victor jibbed, his eyebrows raised as amusement crossed his face. Leeland shook his head though, his stubbornness seeping through.

"Just, thanks. It's the nicest present anyone ever given me an' I…." He ran his hands through his hair, contemplating on the right words to say to him. "You make me 'appy." He finished but it looked as if Victor was not sure what to say to that.

"Leeland-" He started but the older boy shook his head and his arms at the same time.

"No, shh. You're not allowed to argue with me." He said sternly, a very odd trait for Leeland and Victor sealed his lips with a slightly bemused smile. "It is my birthday." He said with a grin and Victor rolled his eyes.

"Come on Slash-"

"Actually, ah was Rivers Cuo-" But he didn't get to finish his sentence as Victor spun him around and began to push on his back and affectively marched him from the music room.

xxx

"Happy Birthday!" Alani had greeted him with a bright grin from the breakfast table. Leeland had smiled sheepishly, muttered thank you and had taken a seat before pulling a box of cheerios towards himself. She then proceeded to watch the pair of them with her beady brown eyes and flicked her hair over her shoulder as Victor moved over to the toaster.

"So." She began quietly, leaning over her porridge that threatened to smear itself over her t-shirt. Next to her, Hope rolled her eyes and managed to pull it the side. Then, both girls affixed their eyes upon Leeland and the boy gulped slightly.

"You and Victor…?" She asked; voice even quieter and Leeland frowned, gave a roll of his shoulders and turned back to his cereal.

"What abou' us?" He asked, suddenly very focused on his cereal and wondering whom down the line had the milk. Licking over his lips, he completely ignored the girls and turned to look down the table and towards the milk jug that was being slowly passed down. Nicky had it between his grip and he rested his head on his hands. He probably wouldn't get it now.

"Are you like, together?" She asked and he froze, eyes firmly fixed upon the wolf child who was pouring more and more milk onto his weetabix until it was more milk than cereal.

"Uhh." It was a question that froze him, made his brain warp into overload and he panicked for a second or two with how to respond. That was until the milk was set in front of him by a vivid green blur. The same blur grabbed Alani by her t-shirt, pulled her up and out of the seat and marched her into the hallway. Leeland and Hope were left staring after them until they vanished out of view.

"Hey, Vic! Don't pull my shirt, you're gonna rip it!" Once they were a little away from the kitchen, he spun the girl around and pointed a finger at her. "What are you playing at?" He asked, one eyebrow raised as he fairly scowled at her. Alani shrugged, a smile curling her lips as she leaned forward and pinched her friend's cheeks between her fingers.

"Awww, is someone shy?" She mocked, her hands swatted away as Victor huffed at her.

"It's nothing to do with you. Or…Or anyone else!" He scowled as his arms wrapped around his chest, a frown plastered upon his face. Alani tutted at him, rolled her eyes and her smile became soft. Tilting her head to side, she leaned forward and poked Victor in the nose before scowling playfully at him. "I'm only teasing Victor. Hmm, It's like a bit of Lee has rubbed off on you, huh?" She smiled and Victor smirked, gave a roll of his shoulders before shoving his hands deep into his pockets.

"So what's the word green buddy?" She asked, leaning backwards to rest up against the wall and Victor rolled his shoulders.

"Nothing much." But her stare seemed to bore right through him. "We kissed." He added quickly and she smiled so brightly that it made the bright red streaks across her skin fairly glow. Her eye's pressed for more and he rolled his eyes before the pair of them laughed.

"Anything else?" She pressed, stepping forward to loop her arm over her friend's shoulders and squeezed them tight.

"Don't pry." He warned her with a pointed glare but she could only grin and nodded her head.

"Ok, ok. So, boyfriend material then?"

"Hmm." But Victor didn't know how to respond to that, until Julian's head poked around the corner from the kitchen with sleep tussled hair and a scowl. "I'm eating your toast if you don't claim it Borokowski!" He had left his breakfast cooking in the toaster and quickly headed back to the kitchen and away from Alani's questioning.

She was being playful; it was simply how she was. However, Victor did not know what he and Leeland were. He liked being friends with him but he needed to know him a bit more before he decided on what he actually wanted. Besides, Leeland had enough on his plate all ready without him in tow too.

xxx

The triplets were acting strange. It was the first thing Leeland noticed. They were sat in computer class and the boy was not really paying attention to what Kitty was telling them. Kept spinning around on his chair, bored, not listening. Victor kept holding his hand out, stopping the chair and pointing at his computer screen. In the end, he'd stopped all together and smirked out the corner of his mouth.

The girls didn't seem to be paying attention either. They looked distant, away with the fairies and kept on glancing at Leeland as he spun around on his seat. In the end, he gave them a slight wave and a smile and they surprised him by waving back.

All of a sudden, he abruptly stopped spinning and glanced upwards into Kitty's face. "Err." He started, Victor stifling a laugh behind her. She leaned down next to him and spun his chair to face the screen. "I'll let your off this once birthday boy." She tapped the keyboard. "But if you don't pay attention, you'll be spending the rest of your birthday in here."

Julian snickered at him and Leeland stuck his tongue out, but grinned nonetheless. He glanced at the screen, licked over the top of his lips and without even looking towards him Kitty spoke again. "And if you think about making the computer do it for you Leeland there will be no cake for anyone this evening."

"Pff, it's only cake." Julian laughed and Alani threw a wadded up piece of paper to the back of his head. "You'll eat cake Julian, and you'll like it. I worked hard on it."

"No cake, means no party tonight." Kitty's threat was empty but the class still moaned. All except for the triplets and Leeland, who was slowly disappearing under the desk as he crouched down in his seat. His cheeks where bright pink, and he had pressed his lips into a tight thin line.

Victor ducked down next to him. "What's the matter?" He whispered and Leeland rolled his shoulders. "Ah told yah that ah didn't want any fuss." He said quietly but Victor could only cluck his tongue, a smile on his lips. "Tough. We're making a fuss." And he ruffled up his hair again, making it stick up and stay alert and wild. Like he had just stuck his fingers into a plug socket.

"Ger' off!" Leeland slapped his hands away playfully before the two of them began hitting each other with their eyes still upon Kitty. She gave them one look that could rival Miss Frost and they quickly turned back to their own computers.

When silence fell over the room and everyone was preoccupied with their work, Leeland took a quick glance over his shoulders. The triplets were still watching him. He gulped, licked his lips and tried to smile at him. They did not return it. Instead, they blinked several times, as if emerging from a trance and turned back to their own computers. The boy frowned, shook his head and turned back to face the monitor.

At the end of class, he was debating whom he should tackle first. Alani, for making him a cake of all things, or the girls. Clearly there was something on their collective minds and he had the feeling that it was something to do with him. Either that or he was being very self-absorbed considering what day it was.

Before he could even get his backpack from under the desk the girls had vanished and Alani was busy laughing with Hope and Victor outside the room. He made to catch up with them but a voice made him stop.

"Not your usual quiet self today Leeland." Said Kitty, not looking at him but her voice was pleasant as she went around the computers and changed the programs for the younger students. Leeland glanced at the door to where Victor was waiting for him.

"Ah'll catch up." He called and turned back to his teacher.

Kitty finally glanced up at him and smiled, and Leeland rubbed the back of his head. His hands moved around towards his ears and he tried his hardest not to fiddle with the temporary hearing aid.

"Sorry." He said with an air of guilt but the older mutant could only smile kindly at him.

"You're allowed to be giddy on your birthday Leeland. It's not everyday you turn eighteen."

"Hmm." He admitted with a nod of his head. She frowned at him, tilted her head as she perched on the side of her desk.

"Is everything…ok?" She asked and the boy shrugged. It was nice that everyone asked after him, but really, he wished they would stop.

Kitty frowned. Leeland was always quiet in class. It was like he couldn't quite believe where he was or what he was doing. As if he was living a completely different life. She supposed that wasn't far from the truth.

"There was somthin' ah wanted to ask actually." He licked over his bottom lip, tongue scraping against the piercing there. She looked at him with those kind brown eyes and he wondered how she could refuse.

"My Dad." He said and chewed on the corner of his mouth when he saw her expression turn into that of pity. He'd seen pity enough to know what it was. A sad smile, the down turn of the eyes but there was always slight determination for the other person. Well, she had the last bit right.

"Ah aven't 'eard anythin' and ah thought that maybe you…or Miss Frost-"He was not above eliminating those who could help, even if Frost was terrifying. "Knew…anythin'?"

Kitty was quiet for a moment and Leeland tried not to avert his eyes, kept his hands firmly grasped on his rucksack. "Leeland." She started, that pitying smile returning to her lips. "When we know something, you'll know it too."

"That's not always true." He said, voice sounding a littler firmer than he meant it too and he frowned. "All the X-men knew what ah was before ah did-"

"Oh Leeland-" She started.

"An' then when yah locked my Dad up and didn't tell me about it or…or even who my real Dad was! 'Cos sure, Doctor McCoy said…" His voice grew steadily quieter as Kitty's expression turned from exasperation to pure bewilderment.

"You…You didn't know, did you?" He asked, pulling a guilt-ridden face. "Ah'm sorry. Ah didn't mean to get angry ah just…Just wish people would tell me things. Instead of keeping me in t'dark." He pursed his lips as he pulled his bag around and clutched it to his chest. "Sorry." He muttered again.

Kitty shook her head, her expression composed again. "You shouldn't have to be sorry. You're right. You should have been told all of this from the start. But hey! You know who your real Dad is, that's great." She sounded genuinely happy and Leeland let a smile curl across his lips. He nodded his head and un-zipped his bag.

"Ahuh. Doctor McCoy gave me this file and everythin'…ah've sorta been carrying it around." He admitted, cheeks going pink as he handed her the manila file and she took it between her fingers.

However, Leeland's smile faded just as quickly as Kitty's did. The file was barely in her grasp two seconds before it phased through her hands and hit the floor with a dull thud. A look of shock hit her at once and when she looked up, her eyes where angry, brimming with tears that threatened to spill over and onto her cheeks.

He had made his teacher cry.

Worst birthday. Ever.


	25. It Could Not Have Evolved By Chance

**Title:** Babel Fish**  
Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell**  
Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)**  
Rating:** 16 +**  
Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot**  
Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?**  
Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.**  
Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

_Edited __on __16/10/2011. __Cleaned __up __a __few__ spelling/grammar __mistakes __and__ did __a __general __tidy __up._

**Chapter****25:** It Could Not Have Evolved By Chance

Leeland had never made a teacher cry before. He was pretty sure he had come close in the past, but that was probably through frustration in trying to teach him. In through one ear and out the other. If corporal punishment was still legal in school, he knew he would have been battered black and blue.

This, however, was completely different and he had not exactly been expecting it. He looked down at the file on the ground and his stomach tied itself in knots. Licking over his lip, he crouched down and picked up the file gently, putting the paper back in order. A warm hand settled over his and he peered up at Kitty who looked sadly at him.

"Sorry." He muttered though for the life of him he couldn't figure out what he was sorry for. Was it for making her cry, or was he merely reeling of a conditioned response that he had been assured would make everything better? After all, he was the kind of person to apologise if someone bumped into him.

Kitty, however, shook her head and moved her hand back as she straightened up. Pressing her fingers to her eyes she shook her head again and her ponytail swished past her shoulders. It curled around her neck like a little snake or a noose.

Pressing the file to his chest Leeland bit down on his lip and began to stagger backwards. Kitty was still crying, and she tried furiously to wipe them from her face. It made her look angry and the boy was not sure where that anger was going to be heading.

"I'll go." He said quickly, mind still racing as to what had upset her so much but a little notion was starting to form inside his mind. Doug had been at the school and he and Kitty seemed to be the same age. She probably knew him. This was probably why Doctor McCoy had told him to keep it to himself. But he couldn't help it. The whole idea and notion of discovering who and what he was, it was both fascinating and terrifying. He wanted to be able to share that fear. Perhaps he simply wasn't going about it the right way.

"No." She said finally, pushing her hands down and trying to smile through what was obviously not a happy or pleasant revelation. With rubbed red eyes she looked at him, as if seeing him in a brand new light and Leeland did not much care for it. It made his heart beat wildly inside his chest and anxiety pooled into his stomach.

"Ah really need to go." He muttered and turned quickly before leaving the room at such a speed that he almost tripped over. Kitty tried to call him back but he was already half way up the corridor and had disappeared around the corner by the time she had made it to the door.

xxx

There was a well at the Xavier institute. It was not a magnificent construction like the mansion itself, it was old and ugly and probably had been there for as long as the grounds had been an estate. It was secluded away inside the forest that ran around the school, which kept it out of the view of the public eye.

The dark moss that covered half of the well was damp and gave off the odor of the forest and of rotting leaves. Like a piece of mold it had spread over the years and covered most of the ground around it. The smell of stagnant water hovered around it but did not make it unpleasant, more familiar.

Leeland had missed the smell. It reminded him of home and everything he missed. The forest was terribly damp and when he closed his eyes it was like being in the old stone quarry that was so close to the cottage. The quarry itself had not been used for decades. Wild grass and tree's had sprung up quite impossibly like stray daffodils on the sidewalk. But they were there and he and Brian had spent their childhood climbing the trees and trying to start fires in old car tires.

He sniffled and pulled his coat tighter around his chest. The file had been carefully placed in side his rucksack that was now perched upon his trainer clad feet. It did nothing to suppress the cold of December and he was starting to sniffle and hoped he was not going to come down with a cold. Victor would kill him.

That thought made him smile and shake his head, peer down at his knee's and watch as his breath fogged and curled up and around his mouth. It was like whiskers on a cat and that thought alone made him think of Kitty and his smile faded into sad lines. When he lifted his head he almost squealed, as there was the teacher he had made cry. She was smiling at him and was holding out his scarf.

"Thought you might want this." She held the scarf out to him and he took it with a grateful nod just as a shiver of cold ran down his spine. He had been sat outside for so long that the scarf was probably going to be useless. Still, the fabric felt cozy against his neck and he even managed to form a smile.

"Mind if I sit down?" She asked and Leeland shrugged. Wanted to say it was a free country and that she could do what she liked. But he kept it too himself as it sounded a little bitter.

The warm body sat down next to him and stared out at the forest. It was quite eerie when it was almost silent, with only the occasional sound of passing invisible creatures. "Peter said that you never turned up to Art class?" She asked, turning to face the boy who was more interested in his coat sleeve. He gave a shrug. "Didn't feel like goin'." Of course out of all the classes he had been attending at the school, Art was still he favourite. Peter's artwork was phenomenal and he would paint with such a determined yet soft-featured face.

"Leeland. You know I'm not angry with you, don't you?" Kitty asked and Leeland tilted his head to the side and gave another roll of his shoulders. He didn't know what to think but Kitty's face made it quite clear that she was not angry at him or with him. Her smile was genuine and soft and there was playfulness in her eyes that Leeland assumed was to cover up the sadness. She was doing a very good job of it.

"Ah know that…it's. It's just that-." He pressed his lips together and frowned, trying to find the right words to express how he actually felt. It was difficult. He was terrible with words, better with pictures. "Ah just wanted summat to put to me. A face…. Ah miss mah Dad." He whispered as his hands went to the scarf around his neck, rubbed at it between his long fingers.

They sat in silence after that but it was not uncomfortable.

Finally, Leeland spoke again. "Dad's a terrible cook. Always was so 'e used to get me auntie Josie to make mah cake. It was t'one time ah could go over board with sugar and 'e would let me with this stupid grin on 'is face. Ah think 'cos 'e knew ah'd be pukin' up later." He laughed and sniffled at the same time, gaze still focused on his coat sleeve. "Even last year, ah still 'ad that cake. Jus' me and 'im 'cos Brian and me would always do stuff later. It's always just been me and 'im." He bent down and unzipped his bag, pulled out the file and held it between his cold hands.

"It's not jus' the two of us anymore, an' ah guess it never really was." He looked to his side to Kitty who was watching him with a curious expression. "E's sat in some jail somewhere 'cos he tried to protect me. That's all 'e's ever done. But Doug didn't 'ave that and neither did mah mother."

Something flickered in Kitty's eyes and Leeland frowned for a second. He was distracted by the sudden gust of wind that made him hold the folder close to his chest, lest he lose it. "Ah'm eighteen today." He said quietly but with determination. "Ah'm an adult, which means ah need to start actin' like one. That means takin' responsibility for what 'appened to Doug." He stood up and grabbed his bag, ignoring Kitty's look and her hand on his arm.

"What happened wasn't your fault Leeland. You're the most innocent person in all of this." She squeezed his arm reassuringly.

But Leeland shook his head, turned to look down at Kitty's fingers. "Ah'm not jus' gonna sit 'ere and let other people sort this all out for me. Ah'll find t'bastards who did this and Ah'll make 'em responsible for their actions."

"That's not what Doug would have wanted-"

"But it's what ah want." Leeland cut her off and drew his arm back to himself.

"Do you really think that's what being an adult is all about, hmm? You think once you hit eighteen that you'll know more than you did the day before?"

"Ah never said that-"

"But that's what you mean. It's just a number Leeland and you're still a child." She sighed and wanted to say that there were better people out there suited to uncovering what happened to Doug. Better people than a boy who couldn't pay attention in class and was currently swooning like a lovesick dog. However, that sounded mean.

"An' Miss Frost keepin' me 'ere till I'm twenty one is really gonna help me, isn't it? They won't care 'ow old ah ahm if they want me back!" He threw his hands up into the air in annoyance and proceeded to scowl. "They want me back and it ain't jus' them either. It's everyone pullin' me this way and that. Every little thing stacking up on top of me an' ah can't stand it anymore!" He spun around abruptly, almost toppled over when his legs became entangled but he managed to recover. Pressing the balls of his thumbs into his eye sockets, he took a deep breath that threatened to crack and waver.

Exhaling, he threw down his hands and blinked the spots away from his eyes. The angry scowl on his face slowly fell away into sad lines and when he looked over his shoulder it had completely disappeared. There was not a happy expression on his face, it was impassive-tired almost. "Sorry. Ah don't suppose yah came out 'ere to be moaned at."

Kitty tilted her head to the side and a smile worked its way into the corner of her mouth. There was a sense of understanding in her eyes and she gave a soft shrug it of her shoulders. It was not a dismissive gesture but more that she didn't mind. "It's sort of in my job description. " She paused for a second before looking to her side and she gave a small nod of her head, as if answering a question silently put to her.

"I have something to show you."

They walked in silence out of the winding forest and onto the grounds of the Xavier estate. Past the school and over the little hedge that separated the basketball court from the baseball field. The day was still bitterly cold and it seemed to be getting chillier. Leeland rubbed his hands together before pulling his jumper sleeve out of his coat and wrapping them around his numb fingers.

It took him a moment or two to realise they were heading towards the graveyard. He gave Kitty a questioning look, but she did not respond. Instead, he looked forward and chewed nervously on his lip. His heart began to beat like a drum inside his chest.

The notion that Doug was buried at the school had hardly dawned on him. He supposed he had assumed it to be true and then thought nothing else off it. It was not something positive that he wanted to concentrate on.

Walking down the little grassy spaces between the pearly white graves was both depressing and hauntingly beautiful. Leeland knew he could be at least grateful for one thing; he was not dead.

They stopped at the end of one of the rows, both quiet as door mice as they looked down at the grave before them. This one was slightly older than the ones around it. (The other graves where newer and it sent a chill down the boy's spine.) It looked as if someone had tried to break the headstone, or at least gripped it too tightly. One corner of it was slightly crumbling away. In a strange way it gave it character. The grave was Doug's:

_Douglas Aaron Ramsey  
1976 – 1997  
Age 21  
A Good Son  
There Was No Other Friend Like Him_

The boy stared at the name etched into the gravestone until the letters became meaningless and the words blurred into each other. It was like he wasn't really seeing it. And a strange thing occurred to Leeland as he stared at the tombstone of someone he did not know. It was that he couldn't feel anything.

He looked upwards and across at the other graves and spotted the one that belonged to Victor's Paras. It was if the ghost was perched on top and was waving at him. When he looked back, he saw that Kitty was staring hard at the grave. She was trying not to cry.

"Ah didn't know 'im." He finally managed to say, his attention still focused on Kitty. When she didn't look at him, he continued. "Ah don't suppose it would 'ave made much difference if ah did. Dead is dead." She looked at him with hurt in her eyes at first, but it softened again when he went on. "Ah grew up thinkin' my mam was dead. That was normal. So when Brian's dad died, that just added to the normality." Glancing back at Doug's grave he tilted his head to side. "Ah don't believe in heaven or hell…or god for that matter. Don't think there's anythin' really." He pulled his bag around and pulled out the file once again. "Don't know him, never met him and what ever it is we 'ave in common is a bit of DNA. It might not even be that so…" He frowned, trying to formulate his words. "Don't get me wrong, ah do feel sad for him and about death but…this ain't doin' it for me." He gave her the file, which she took curiously between her hands before giving him a questioning glance.

"Ah'm gonna find the people that involved Doug, find an explanation and set the record straight. Then ah'm gonna come and find you and Doctor McCoy an' tell you because then it might make you feel better about…me ah guess." If anything, Leeland felt personal grief at the idea of someone else's memories pulled though the mud. He understood Kitty's grief, he really did. He just couldn't be a part of it. Didn't want to be. Of course he had been upset to a degree when he found out about Doug and how he died but that was common courtesy. There was only so much grief he could give to a man he wouldn't have known if he passed him on the street.

"Better about you?" Kitty asked with a frown and Leeland nodded his head. "When yah saw that it was Doug, you looked at me like ah was a ghost." He gestured down at the grave. "His ghost…So did Forge and ah guess all the staff. But I ain't 'im. Ah'm not gonna get shot or…" He shook his head and closed his eyes for a second. With a deep breath, he pushed his hands through his hair and let it snarl around his fingers. For several moments he stood still with his face pointed upwards and let the cold air press down upon his skin. Then he exhaled and smiled. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was a start.

"But I know you're not Doug, Lee. I never would hav-"

"It's ok." Leeland cut her of before she could finish, the smile still on his face. "Ah can't quite read body language." He said quietly and Kitty peered down at the file in her hands. She gave one last glance at Doug's grave and came closer to Leeland. "Come on, you're starting to shiver." She observed sadly.

They said nothing more on the matter other than Kitty was to keep the file, do whatever she wanted with it just not give it back to Leeland. Said he was done looking at a dead man's pictures and that he needed to move forward.

When Leeland peered over his shoulder, the smile on his face became genuine. Then, he tutted and began to walk forward. "He's gonna freeze to death."

Victor was stood at the other end of the graveyard in only a t-shirt and jacket. Rubbing his arms together, the green mutant grinned just as broadly which was a strange sight amongst the dead.

From afar, Kitty watched as the two boys' greeted each other. Leeland wrapped his arms around Victor's, rubbed them with his own cold hands and muttered something into his ear. Laughing, Victor playfully pushed Leeland away, shook his head before reaching up to ruffle at his hair. They turned to head back into the warmth of the school, fingers barely brushing against each other.

Closing her eyes tight, Kitty took a deep breath and clutched the file to her chest in the very same way Leeland had. It made her laugh and when she opened her eyes she remembered where she was stood and peered down at the grave before her.

"No, he's not you Doug. I'm not silly enough to think like that again." She let her mind flutter away to a dark memory, so stubborn and young. Determined that the man stood before her was her best friend returned from the grave and not just a confused Technarch. So big headed that she phased down into the grave only to be greeted by a scene that gave her nightmares for years to come. No, Leeland was right. Doug was well and truly dead.

"But… I think you would have liked him though." She added as she unwound her arms from around the file and expected to peer down at the photo attached. It wasn't there.

XXX

Leeland was not the most social of creatures. He never had been and probably never would be. This was made even worse by the tight knit community of x-children trying to incorporate him into their little group. It was not that he was ungrateful, the complete opposite in fact but with an hour to go before his own party, he was hiding in his cupboard.

Using the need for the bathroom as an excuse, Leeland had ran to his room, bypassed said bathroom entirely, and went straight for the built in wardrobe. There he sat with a note pad scribbling away with a bubble floating in his left hand as a rudimentary light source. It was not the greatest of power sources, as he needed to keep a constant flow on energy pooling into his hand. What was pleasant though was the changing colours the bubble gave off depending on his mood. It seemed to work as a calming effect for the boy and his nerves.

Taped to the back of his book was the little photo of Doug he had taken from the file and next to it he had started to jot down everything he knew so far. That he was somehow an alien being, or at least part of him was. That Doug was his father and that the generator had been in cahoots of sort with Warlock. Tiny notes on the facility, of the person with the guilty conscious who had approached his father to get him out of the facility. Next to that was a giant question mark with the word 'mother' quickly scribbled next to it. He kept on pressing his pen into the paper, a new dot every time he tried to think of writing down something new.

But Leeland was a terrible writer, he saw better in pictures and she was the one missing piece that he could not put a face too. The one little thing his imagination had always had problems with. When he was little, he would close his eyes and picture a lady with blonde hair like him that flowed down her back and he would think of her as a queen of sorts. He wanted to know what her face looked like, what she would smell like when she leaned down to kiss him good night.

The face was a smudged white blur and the smell was that of static electricity that he couldn't shift.

He groaned in frustration, pushed his head back against the wall as the bubble in his hand tinged yellow. Frustrated. There was so much to do and think about but Leeland did not have a clue where to begin. He wanted his father out of jail, his best friend home safe and Victor …

Shaking his head, Leeland pushed himself forward and balanced his notebook on his knee. The tapping pen started to scribble next to the big question mark and a smile curled its way around his mouth. Two little eyes began to peer back at him in profile. Two separate people began to take form as well as lips and tongues and two chests pressed together. They were bare, one skinny and quickly sketched, the other well formed and precise. Entwined together with the kind of passion Leeland had only ever poured into his paintings and occasionally his music. The one thing he could lose himself in.

The tinged light source in his hand flooded the closet in a rosy hue. Soft pinks and purples brought a strange colouration to the page. Before he knew what he was doing, he had taken up the opposite page to Doug's photo with the kind of illustration he had very rarely pursued. All his frustration, anger and annoyance was poured into the deep dark lines yet his fears and nerves became clear in the soft cross hatching of his shading. The two naked figures began to take shape in a pose that was neither dignified nor erotic. Some place in the middle that Leeland felt comfortable with yet he knew he would never have the guts to do in real life.

The pen began to slow and he returned to tapping the paper. Though this time there was a purpose as he began to add freckles to one of the entangled bodies on the page.

Lost in his train of thought, he jumped a sky mile when the soft sound of knocking erupted against the closet door.

"Shit." He hissed as the bubble shattered with shock and he was plummeted into darkness. Quickly he closed his notebook and rubbed a hand around his temporary hearing aids.

"Erm…who is it?" He asked stupidly and scowled when he realised just how silly that must have sounded.

"Open the door Leeland, we have a gift for you." Came the sure sound of the triplets speaking as one. At least, Leeland presumed it was the triplets. He was still getting used to the hearing aids.

The boy frowned, tucked his notebook in between his knees and leaned up to push the door open. It swung open slowly to reveal the three girls dressed in a pleated blue skirt and a matching pale blue shirt. It made them look younger than they were and a little too innocent for Leeland's liking. It looked as if they were up to something.

"Er…hello?" He said with an arch of an eyebrow. Sticking his head out of the closet, he peered around the frame and glanced at the closed bedroom door. He was pretty sure he had locked it behind him but the presence of the girls told him otherwise. When he pulled himself back around, the girls had knelt in front of him and the triplet in the middle held out a pretty little box.

It was blue, like their skirts, with a silver bow neatly knotted at the top. "You really didn't 'ave to get me anythin'" He told them with an unsure smile as his nose went pink from embarrassment.

"But we wanted to give you this." Said the girl in the middle as she handed over the box. Leeland took it between his hands and pressed his lips together.

"We sought out Forges help-"

"-And David's too."

"We think they will be to your liking."

"They?" Leeland frowned as he looked down at the box in his hands. The girls did not respond, simply stared at him in an expectant manner. Not wanting to seem rude, or terrified of the girls, Leeland pulled on the bow. Lifting the lid, he pushed aside a piece of blue tissue paper and a smile appeared on his face. It was perplexed, the same emotion showing across the entirety of his face.

Inside the box was a pair of goggles. A black chrome finish gleamed with the winter sun that was shining through the window. An intricate detail of yellow wiring and circuitry was embedded into the frame of the goggles and seeped into the tinted lenses. They would fit perfectly around his head, even snuggly over his ears.

"What are they for?" Was the first thing out of Leeland's mouth, rather than the thank you that was supposed to come first.

"They will eventually be synchronised with your implants to allow for perfect combat and precise training techniques."

Leeland turned his gaze up at the girls and a frown creased his eyebrows. "They're for trainin'? But what do they do?"

"Try them on." They said as one, a smile on their mirrored faces.

The goggles snapped perfectly around the boy's head and ears with only slight discomfort from the temporary hearing aids. The strap at the back was made of leather, and could be easily adjusted even with his wild hair hiding the buckle from view.

"Is summat supposed to 'appe-whoa!" Whoa described the situation perfectly. The goggles themselves sprung to life. The intricate circuitry started to seep out sideways and began to rest on top of Leeland's skin. It pulsed along like little feelers. The boy panicked, threw his hands up to snatch them away from his head but stopped at the last possible second. Something was not quite right with the situation but an oh so familiar feeling swept over him.

It was like he was eight years old again, with the tingling spine and the feeling of total isolation in a world full of people.

He shot his head upwards and opened his previously clamped eyes. The girls were tinted yellow from the lenses but behind them was a pulsing white glow. It was coming from one of the plug sockets. In fact, every piece of electrical equipment in the room began to give off the same light and Leeland staggered to his feet.

"They'll allow you to seek out electric and technological energy sources. The technology of the goggles is from Kvch." The girls spoke as one again as they rose to their feet along with Leeland.

"Kvch?" Leeland asked as he stumbled forward, arms out wide in case he tripped over his own feet. The goggles were a little disorientating and the circuitry upon his skin was starting to heat up from contact. It was not uncomfortable or painful, yet he doubted it looked appealing either.

"The home world of the Technarchy. Warlock's planet." They said and Leeland stopped stumbling around the room to turn and look at them. He almost looked like a Technarch himself, with his long spindly arms and wild hair. The goggles made him look as alien as he felt.

His heart began to pound wildly in his chest as he tried to test the word 'Kvch' out with his own mouth. The girls were not saying it right, that much he knew. It was not their fault; they simply did not have the vocal capabilities to say such a word. It was not pronounced "Ker-vich", it was something completely inhuman.

"'Ow did you know about Warlock?" He asked with a frown and the girls stared at him.

"We know quite a lot about you and Warlock, Leeland."

The girls stood beneath his window, unsmiling as they watched the boy. The winter sun made an almost halo like glow shine around them. The goggles amplified the sight and Leeland swayed unsteadily on his feet. He threw his hands up towards the goggles, laced his fingers around the strap in an attempt to pull them off his head. They were stuck. "H-hey!" He stammered as panic began to well up inside of him. "G-get them off!" The goggles were stuck fast to his head and the circuitry resting on top of skin began to heat up. He tried to pull at it, but to no avail and his last realisation of horror was that the circuitry was worming its way under his skin.

"AHH!" He shouted, fingers and legs trembling with fear of the unknown. The fear that something terrible was going to happen to him and that he could not stop it. He fell to the floor, knee's smacking the rug in the process and sending a shock of pain up towards his hips. The girls were still stood there, still watching him with passive expressions and with no indication that they were going to help him.

The girls linked hands, their attention solely focused upon the writhing boy on the ground who began to splutter and cough in panic. His fear had taken a hold of him and all rational thinking was pushed out for the instinctive and primitive need to be free of what was, ultimately, alien to him.

"Leeland." The girls said gently. "You must calm down."

But he could not calm himself, or his breathing. With wide terrified eyes, he tried to get to his feet but slipped on the rug and fell backwards, head smacking against the hard floor beneath him. Stars erupted in front of his eyes and he simply stopped struggling. He lay there, staring at the ceiling and immobilised as the circuitry buried under his skin and with a roll of his eyes, he promptly passed out.

xxx

When Warlock first came upon Earth, he did not know what to think. No, that wasn't quite true. He knew he was afraid, therefore all his actions were afraid. Scared of the ground, scared of the trees but even worse still he was afraid of what he had been running from. Therefore, logic dictated that what he was most afraid of was not Earth at all. Not it's inhabitants or it's strange terrain. That meant he was safe.

Friendship became a new and fascinating concept. One that he would cherish for always and it would dictate exactly how his life would plan out. It was this that Warlock regretted. How close he had become to Doug, the self-soul friend that he bonded too-made him his own.

Doug had had dreams-nightmares-of Warlock becoming his Siredam, his father. Forced him into an eons old Kvch tradition where the father would battle the son for the right of succession. He never told him how it ended, but Warlock could calculate the outcomes and neither one was palatable.

However, Warlock did not dream, did not have nightmares. When he closed his eyes to regenerate, his sub-conscious did not unwind because he did not have one. What he had was a string of code, warped together like thoughts that allowed his to make precise calculated outcomes in everyday life. These outcomes were not so useful to him now, nothing really was. However, he was certain about the not dreaming part. He did not know what it was and therefore when it actually happened, he was unaware of what it truly meant. Or if he was dreaming at all.

He was somewhere dark and it was all around him. Darkness under his feet, darkness above his head. It stretched for miles, possibly decades but he decided not to concern himself with such a matter and focus on what was directly in front of him.

There was a small naked body wrapped tightly around itself, seemingly floating in the vastness of space. Its soft sobs were the only sound that could be heard and it echoed off the non-existent walls.

Warlock came forward, head tilted to the side as his mind began to process the scene in front of him. The skin colour, the hair pigmentation and the DNA anomalies that took scientists years to work out but to him it was instinctual.

_The__infant._ The first of his kind so cruelly made and warped into a body of flesh and a mind that could not comprehend. It sobbed into its naked knee's, arms wrapped so tightly around that its knuckles had become paler than its skin.

"Self-Kin." Warlock frowned and crouched down next to the body. He stretched out his hand and let it hover over the infant who immediately stopped sobbing and began to turn its head towards the Technarch.

Leeland's face was tear stricken. An intricate network of circuitry had begun to form under the freckled skin. It looked painful, out of place and Warlock felt a deep sympathy. "Malicious code has affected Self-Kin." He spoke with a gentle tone as he pulled Leeland into his arms and pushed his hair back from his face. The boy did not speak, only looked at Warlock with a tired, yet pain filled expression.

He brushed the boy's cheek with his skeletal like fingers and the circuitry reacted violently. It rushed backwards, as if afraid to be near the Technarch. Leeland hissed in pain, his back arching as his head snapped backwards. Warlock pushed on and settled his fingers across the boy's unfocused eyes. "Defragmenting Self-Kin code."

A tremendous yellow light erupted from Leeland's eyes and he gasped as robotic appendages seeped into his skin. Like spiders tendrils, they seeped out to confront the labyrinth that did not belong. "Self-Kin has been contaminated." Warlock spoke gently but was almost drowned out by the sound of Leeland's cries of anguish.

After several minutes, the shouts of pain began to trickle to simple whimpers and finally Warlock pulled back his hand. Sweat coated the boy's skin, his hair matting together in clumps as he stared up at the alien. The creature smiled at him and Leeland's eyes slowly began to focus.

"Warlock?" He asked, eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"The infant was infected by malicious foreign code that was not of self's own stock."

Leeland blinked at him, pulled his hand up and rubbed furiously at his eyes. "…told yah, I ain't an infant."

"Infants are baby's." Warlock nodded with a sad smile as he lifted his head and turned his gaze towards the endless black that surrounded them both.

"Where are we?" He heard Leeland ask as he got to his feet, bringing the boy with him still cradled in his arms. The creature did not answer straight away as he began to process the information he had gathered in such a short amount of time. He now knew for certain that what he was experiencing was not a dream nor was he actually with the infant for is he was then no good would come of it.

His gaze returned to the boy in his arms who was still staring at him. There was a look of calm serenity on his face, with no hint of question about what he was doing there and his lack of garments.

"Self-Kin, you are unique. My species is unable to manifest such a dimension-yet here self is with Self-Kin in tow." He looked upwards just in time for several pin prick lights to shine down on them. More came after that, illuminating the 'sky' above like stars on a cold dark night. "The astral plane."

The boy in his arms shifted, turning his head to look up at the sky. "Ah remember the stars." He started quietly. "The girls…the girls took me to t'danger room. Made me sit in a circle an' then…then." Warlock looked down at the boy whose face was contorted with confusion and puzzlement. "This isn't right." He said quietly. "There was a path. A great big long shiny path, an' all these colours-" As soon as the words spilled from Leeland's mouth, a winding path appeared beneath them illuminating them both was a rainbow array of colours.

"Oh."

"A metaphorical level of existence with ties to the physical world, which only psychic entities can visit."

"But ah ain't psychic." Said Leeland quite matter of factly and Warlock nodded his head in agreement.

"True, however self believes this is not purely coincidental. Self is under the assumption we have arrived here by means of outside help. For what purpose, self is unsure."

"It's my birthday." The boy said, completely off topic. Frowning, Warlock peered down at the boy who did not seem concerned that he was naked or that he was in the astral plane in the arms of a creature he had not seen in over a decade.

"No it isn't." Warlock said kindly. "But happy birthday infant."

Leeland did not respond, instead he turned his head up towards the sky and licked out across the non-existent lip ring. He paused a moment, sucked his lip into his mouth before beginning his hand up towards his eyebrow. The piercing there was also missing, as well as earring and hearing aids. "Ah'm…incomplete." He said softly, even going as far as too look puzzled at the words he was using.

"Self-Kin is incorrect. Self-Kin is very much complete. Self fears have been realised." Carefully, he placed Leeland down on the colourful path and the boy was quite steady on his feet despite his previous burst of agony. However, a warm hand sought out his and clung to the metal appendages with a vice like grip. The rest of Leeland appeared to be quite relaxed, in a state of rest but his hands one action spoke a thousand words.

Beneath the exterior of calm was a wave of panic that could not surface inside the astral plane for one reason or another. Taking a hold of Leeland's shoulder, Warlock turned the boy towards him. This was not a little human anymore, or even a child in human terms. But on Kvch, he would be year's away form leaving the nursery. In Warlock's eyes, this was an infant and he had a duty to protect it.

"Self-Kin, listen to self. It is about to become dangerous for you. You must stay with the X-men at all times. Self-friends will take care of you."

Leeland could only look at him with a perplexed expression, his eyebrows knitting together so hard that they almost formed one jagged line. "Yah startin' to soun' more like me Dad. Yah know, the living one, not the dead one."

"Then the adult human is smarter than self gave him credit for. Self fears this meeting has done more harm than good."

"But…But ahm alright now, aren't ah?"

Warlock's face was unreadable and he watched as the boy's eyes slowly began to droop and he wobbled on his feet. Within a blink of a second, the boy had vanished and the pressure on his hand was released. He could still feel it though, that same energy bouncing around the boy. Dangerous energy that would only end in tragedy.

A large rapturous noise echoed across the astral plane and slowly the lights began to fade away and the path dissolved into nothing. A blinding red flashing light erupted above him and Warlock looked at it impassively. It seemed that it was time to wake up.

xxx

Through all the confusion and the chaos a woman smiled.

This was the pinnacle point, realised the assistant stood next to her. They could see their reflections through the reinforced glass. One smiling bright and wide, because she knew all of her dreams and ambitions were slotting into place. The assistant did not smile, but he felt pride never the less. This is what they had been waiting for. What they had been working years towards. It was almost time.

The noise of the alarm carried on around them. It tinged their skin red on account of the flashing warning lights, but to the two stood on the observation platform, it was silent.

"This is it." Said the assistant, looking across at his superior whose smile would have been almost charming if he could see her eyes. They were hidden behind glasses tinged red from the never-ending alarm.

"Yes." Said the women, turning her attention to the scene below them. Down towards the creature that was bound to a wall with a series of crisscrossing chains and a computer program. A program that kept it in place, rendered its abilities to grow to the size of a skyscraper obsolete as well as disallowing it from contacting anyone-anyone other than the boy and only when they were ready.

"The stock is complete." Her smile radiated her face and a surge of anticipation and excitement seeped into the assistant's stomach. The creature tried its best to wrench the chains from itself but to no avail. Heaving, it turned its great robot-esque head up towards them and glared.

It had not spoke a word since they found it, but the assistant knew it hated them. He was not sure why, as all they wanted to do was good. All they would do would be nothing but greatness. Surely the creature could see this?

At the last moment, he avoided its eyes. Could not bear to look at it anymore.

"Something troubling you Colin?" Asked his superior. Her hands were pressed neatly behind her back as not to crease the sleeves of her lab coat.

"No Ma'am. I just-" Colin swallowed the words forming in his mouth and shook his head. He took a deep breath and looked back down at the creature that had started to snarl in the direction of its handlers. They were the most efficient people in getting the alien to co-operate. A few jolts of electric straight into the beings spinal chord and it soon stopped its fuss.

"Beastlike isn't it." Said his superior. However, she did not look down her nose at the alien. She looked at it the same way a poacher looks at an elephant. A poacher does not hate the elephant for there is nothing to hate about it. Yet a poacher knows perfectly well that if it chooses to, if it has the chance, then the elephant will kill them.

She intended to keep this elephant chained.

"I didn't think it could be anything more?" Colin frowned. "I was under the assumption that all Technarch we're feral and vicious, going as far as to kill their own children?"

"Hmm." His superior nodded. "Quite. However, I've been studying Technarch samples since before you knew how to tie your shoelaces Colin. There's more to them than meets the eye, never forget that."

"N-no ma'am." Colin shook his head, he certainly wouldn't forget. "May I ask what our next move is in regards to 4.2?"

The superior turned to look up at the flashing light, still ongoing even though the situation was under hand. Colin watched as she stood quite still and quiet, simply surveying the light; lost in her own thoughts.

"Ma'am? Doctor Versenwald?"

"4.2 will reach maturity by the end of the year. If all goes to plan, we should be able to hold a demonstration to the benefactors by January at the latest." She turned abruptly just as the light shut off and it caused Colin to jump. However, he managed to straighten himself out and gave a sharp nod of his head. He could not help the smile that graced his thin lips when Doctor Versenwald beamed at him.

The whole operation was her life's work, and soon the great plan would come together and her name would go down in history as one of mankind's greatest assists. And her junior assistant, Doctor Andrew Colin, would be right there at her side.

"There is just one problem though Ma'am."

"And what problem would that be?" Asked Versenwald as she began to head towards the door of the observation deck and out into the wide corridor. Colin followed dutifully after her, his small round hands clutched around a clipboard that he had been carrying for quite some time.

"Well…I was wondering how we would propose in obtaining 4.2 from the mutants?"

"How we would get it and how we're going to it are two completely different questions Colin." Her shoes clicked against the clean white floor as they made their way past door after door, meeting after meeting. Turning towards him, she a put a thin hand on his shoulder and continued to smile down at him. "The mutants are no longer our problem. You'll find a file on your desk by tomorrow morning at the latest on how that's being handled. –Which I'll need you to run over to Mueller before lunch-As well as an update on that silly little task force Tony Stark has put together from S.H.I.E.L.D. Of all the preposterous thing's I've heard…"She tutted, gave a shake of her head and Colin nodded in sympathy.

"Not to worry, we'll have 4.2 back where it belongs before you'll even have time to blink."

Colin nodded, he for one could not believe how dangerous it had been for the high ups-higher than Versenwald- to approve the release of 4.2 into the population. Goodness he couldn't even comprehend what would have happened if it had bred. But he supposed cut backs were always going to hit the small sectors the hardest. Soon, that would no longer be a problem.

When one conquered the problem of energy, one tended to conquer the world.

xxx

When Leeland awoke, the goggles were still upon his head. His first immediate reaction was to try and pull them free but he stopped at the last second. They were no longer hurting him and he suspected that they no longer would.

"Leeland?" Asked a soft voice from the side of him. Turning his cheek, he saw that his head was resting in a skirt-clad lap. The triplets surrounded him and one of them had pulled his head and neck up into her lap. She stroked her long pale fingers through his hair and refused to let him sit up.

"Ah'm ok." He tried to brush away their concern but it was to no avail. He looked upwards into the girls face and she frowned at him. It was the first time he had ever seen only one of them perform such a vivid emotion. It made him silent.

"We thought you were going to have a fit." Said the girl at his right side.

"We didn't know this would happen." Said the one to the left and Leeland shook his head. "It ain't your fault. It-'old on." He carefully pulled the goggles up towards the top of his head where they rested in his wild mess of hair. He closed his eyes and tried to think of the best possible way to tell them what had just happened, and he hoped it had happened and that it just wasn't his over active imagination.

"Ah was in t'astral plane an'…an' Warlock was there." He frowned, his mind a little fuzzy. Apart of him felt as if it had been real, the other part was not so sure. It almost felt like a dream that he did not want to wake up from. "The goggles…" He pulled them off his head and held them out in his hands. Played with the straps and pressed his fingers across the lenses. "They're fine now. Warlock made them fine."

The girls looked at each other, each one thinking the same thing. "But only psychic entities can travel to astral plane." The said as one.

"Well 'e was there. Ah know what ah saw." His tone was confident, perhaps a little defensive. As if trying to urge the girls to disprove what he was saying. "But 'e looked sad. Said us meeting there weren't ah good thing." His stomach had tied itself in knots and he finally managed to sit up, his eyes still firmly fixed on the goggles.

"Ah've got a really bad feeling about all this."


	26. Hands Will Move Relentlessly

**Title:** Babel Fish

**Author/Artist:** Blue Stem Cell

**Universe:** Marvel (Alternate Universe)

**Rating:** 16 +

**Genre:** Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot

**Summary:** "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.

**Note:** I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.

Small A/N at the end.

**C****hapter ****26: **Hands Will Move Relentlessly On To Four O'clock

_"Well 'e was there. Ah know what ah saw." His tone was confident, perhaps a little defensive. As if trying to urge the girls to disprove what he was saying. "But 'e looked sad. Said us meeting there weren't ah good thing." His stomach had tied itself in knots and he finally managed to sit up, his eyes still firmly fixed on the goggles._

_"Ah've got a really bad feeling about all this."_

Leeland rubbed at his damp forehead. He was marginally worried that he was going to suffer a migraine attack. That thought was quickly diminished from his mind as a squirming feeling surged through his stomach.

The girls looked at each other as a collective before turning to look back at Leeland with stiff expressions. "We shall take you to Doctor McCoy." Their voices were just as firm as their faces. The boy licked his lips in slight anticipation of being dragged away like some frog marched solider.

"No." He shook his head whilst staggering to his feet. His hands were still clutched around the goggles. Silly really, they had done the damage in the first place. Even after what they had done to him, he did not want to let them go. They were far to too much like Warlock. _Sentimental…idiot._

"Ah don't wanna be poked and prodded at. Ah'll be fine." He tried to smile to show that he was ok but his expression did not change. The girl's faces, however, set themselves in worried lines.

"Your definition of fine is awfully strange-" Said Celeste folding her arms.

"We thought you were going to have a fit-" Continued Mindee with a dark frown.

"You weren't there anymore." Finished Phoebe, her voice softer than her sisters but with just as much concern. Here before them was an older brother that they could not embrace or announce as such for they had promised Miss Frost that they would not tell him. They did not think that hiding such a truth would hurt but it seemed that it was. It was a secret that was growing harder to keep.

Leeland turned to look down at the girls still sat on the bedroom rug. He frowned at them, not understanding their concern or why all three of them looked so worried. He opened his mouth to ask why but huffed instead and stared down at the goggles in his hands.

"Ah was with Warlock but…But ah 'ave this really bad feelin' in mah stomach." He pressed the goggles above his t-shirt and grimaced. It was not exactly a stomachache, but anxiety was worming its way into his lower intestine and was refusing to budge. Seeing Warlock had stirred something deep inside, something happy and familiar. But that fear and worry was overriding the happiness and he pressed his lips into a tight white line.

"Wait ah minute." He frowned, looking at the girls as they rose to their feet and a sudden realisation dawned on him. "Ah never told any of yah about 'Locke. Ah never told anyone but Vic, 'ow did yah know?" He stepped forward, searching their eyes but they gave him nothing but blank stares. Whatever they knew, they certainly were not going to tell him.

A soft knocking on the door made Leeland stop in his questioning of the girls. He froze.

"Err…yeah?" He asked with a gulp. The door opened slowly before Victor stuck his head around it and caused Leeland's stomach to lurch. He could not understand how he did that? How could the green mutants mere presence possibly make him forget everything that he was supposed to be thinking and only focus upon him?

In the time that Leeland took to remember what he was doing, the girls had managed to slip around him and headed quickly towards the door. "W-wait!" He stuttered as they smiled politely at Victor and left pulling the door shut firmly behind them.

Victor grinned at him, though Leeland was starting to notice how his smiles never quite reached his eyes. Turning, he smirked at the door as the girls left and Leeland did nothing but stand there and stare after them. Groaning in annoyance he gritted his teeth and let his eyes slip shut. Instead of going after them though, he simply stood there like an idiot.

"Geeze, you wander to the bathroom for two minutes and your gone for half an hour. What could you have possibly eaten to-" Victor stopped talking as Leeland scrunched his eyes up tight and pressed the goggles to the side of his head. An abundance of emotion hit Leeland at once and he could do nothing but stand on the spot with a slight tremor in his arms. Something strange and out of this world had happened to him not moments before and the girls simply left him. They had looked so worried but then for them to turn around and say nothing? It was infuriating! But he couldn't find the courage to run after them and demand to know what had happened.

They knew something. They _had_ to know something.

A soft pulling at his hands and a concerned tone of voice made him open his eyes. A pair of dark green eyes shone back at him, and Victor gently tugged his hands away from his head and pried his fingers open. The goggles sat loosely in his palm and Victor hovered his fingers over them before his attention was back on Leeland.

"What's wrong?" He asked, all laughter gone and instead replaced with concern and worry. Leeland was starting to hear those words all to often when he was around Victor.

"Did the girls say something to you? You look shaken like a leaf." Victor fingers were on his cheeks, pushing stray strands of hair back and away from his eyes. He tucked them around his ears, careful not to brush up against the hearing aids.

Leeland shook his head. "N-no. Nothin' like that." He frowned, despite himself, as he tried to ignore the fingers on his skin. It was as if his senses had homed in on them and now that was all he was aware of. He pushed himself away from Victor, clutched at the goggles once before throwing them at the bed. That frustration that had welled up inside of him before came back ten fold and he clutched his fists to his sides.

"Summat really strange jus' 'appened an' ah don't even know where to start." He blew out a deep breath, closed his eyes again and tried to think of any time he could have mentioned Warlock to the girls. But he kept hitting the same dead end over and over. The only person he told was Victor. With that realisation in mind, he looked across at the other boy. "You...Yah wouldn't 'ave said owt to the girls 'bout Warlock, would j'yah?" He asked attentively and Victor frowned at him before shaking him his head, a bemused look on his face.

"Why would I tell them anything about that I mean-." But Victor stopped mid sentence, a strange look coming over his face but then he shook his head. "I wouldn't." He said firmly.

"They knew, Victor." Leeland licked his lips before looking over at the goggles. "They knew 'bout Warlock an' me an' they gave me those goggles." He pushed his hands up into his hair in frustration, snarled the locks around his fingers and exhaled with a shake of his head.

"Said David an' Forge 'elped put 'em together."

Victor said nothing, yet he stood with his fingers curled underneath his chin. A look of contemplation crossed his face and he frowned slightly. "David didn't say anything to us."

"Why would 'e?" Leeland asked and Victor shook his head. "And Forge…hmm."

But before Victor could go on, there was another knock on the door. This time Hope stuck her head around the frame and frowned at the two in the middle of the room. She looked a little disgruntled, and huffed as she came into the room with her hands firmly on her hips.

"Are you two hiding up here? Victor, Alani sent you up here ten minutes ago to get Leeland, what are you-" She stopped, glancing between the two boy's and their slightly worried expressions. She frowned before her eyebrows shot upwards and the annoyance slipped from her face. "Oh dear, I interrupted something didn't I?" She asked with a nervous smile, her fingers coming to her mouth as the two boys' quickly looked at each other.

Victor glanced at Leeland who quickly shook his head before staring down at the ground with some far away expression. The other glanced at Hope and gave a shake of his head.

"Give us a few minutes, ok?"

Hope replied with a shrug. "Whatever guys, it's not my business. Alani is getting a little impatient waiting to unveil her _masterpiece_." And she left the room, with a warning that it would be Alani herself who came up next and that they would be sorry if it came to that.

"Leeland? Lee, do you want to tell me what happened?"

But the other boy said nothing, frowning before taking a deep breath.

"Come on." Said Victor with a gentle tone, hoping that maybe Leeland would speak with him later. "We better go and blow out the candles." He smiled reassuringly but Leeland shook his head. "Ah don't much feel like it Vic." He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and shook his head again. His tone was miserable, his pose tired.

Blinking, Victor rubbed his fingers together before inhaling and softly nodding his head. Taking a step forward, he took Leeland's chin between his fingers and gently, but firmly, pulled him down an inch or two.

"Now you listen to me Leeland Williams." He said with stern tone and a slight glare. It was certainly not malicious but it made Leeland gulp and nod his head. "Today is your birthday. For one day, you get to forget everything that's happening to you and around you."

"But…" Frowning, Leeland straightened up and reluctantly pushed the fingers away from his chin. "But ah don't like all this attention. Makes me feel…weird." He squirmed, glancing back at the goggles before turning towards Victor again. "An' summat really weird jus' 'appened an' ah'd kinda appreciate it if ah could jus'-Akkk think!" Again, his hands where thrown up towards his head and he yanked his hair in frustration.

Calmly, Victor reached up, took those hands and pulled them down. He clasped them together in his own hands, their fingers interlocking tight but not constricting.

"You're not listening to me Lee'." And he tried very hard not to sigh or look at Leeland in anyway that would be considered condescending. "Geeze, sometimes you're a hard guy to figure out."

"Ah'm the 'ard guy? You're t'one who dun't know what 'e wants." Leeland said with out thinking, without even meaning for it to leave the safety of his mind. But there it went and the response he got from Victor was not the most desirable.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The soft hold upon his hands did not loosen but nor did it become tighter. Leeland pressed his lips together and swallowed the anxiety creeping up his throat back down into his stomach.

"Yah say ah'm supposed to forget everythin' an' concentrate on good things but it's 'ard an' ahm really tryin' Vic but yah don't make it easy." He took a deep breath, knowing full well that the turn in conversation could end badly.

"One second we're gonna talk, then we don't, then we're kissin' and…and then the next thin' ah know ah'm crawlin' across t'floor in the dirt 'cos _you_ don't want people to see us…. Together." He let their fingers loosely come apart and put one hand up against his ear, rubbing profusely at his temporary hearing aids.

Victor said nothing but he did let their hands slip apart. Flexing his fingers by his side, he nodded his head and opened his mouth to say something. Nothing came out and a frown creased his brow. "I don't know what you want me to say, Lee." He gave a small nervous laugh, which left as quick as it came. The look Leeland gave him knocked it out of him.

Leeland took a deep breath, as if to clear his thoughts. Except it only seemed to make the jumble of words inside his mind more excitable and he exhaled in exasperation. His hand sought out Victors, letting their fingers barely touch. Fingers skimmed across fingers and Leeland thought back the urge just to grab hold and never let go.

Looking up at him, Victor blinked as all laughter seeped from his eyes and it made the other boy's heart sink. The only coherent thought inside Leeland's mind was that Victor ultimately made him happy. Seeing this one boy, with his brilliant mind and beautiful face that it made it easier each day for him to actually get out of bed. That during the confusion that was now Leeland's life, there was this good thing stood right before him.

Each day he would learn something new about him, something that would make him fall harder for him. Leeland had worried that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from falling too hard.

It felt as if, however, that there was a solid wall between them. Neither of them could climb up it or under it and it was there like a thin barricade between them.

"I… Ah haven't known yah that long." Leeland started, his index finger slowly curling around Victor's. "An' ah know that there's things, stuff that's 'appened to you that ah can't even comprehend. That ah probably never will but…" It was there, just resting on the tip of his tongue but he swallowed it down with a smile. It was small and sad, just like Victor's could be when he thought no one was looking.

Leeland's eyes always seemed to linger on him though, watching him just that few seconds longer when everyone else had looked away. His heart would pound erratically in his chest and his stomach would convulse with butterflies.

Victor opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. He looked up at this boy whom he had known for less than three months and slowly thing's started to piece together in his mind. "I…" But the words were stuck inside his mouth. How he felt, how he couldn't let go of the past. Not yet…not just yet.

While his thoughts were preoccupied, Leeland took up Victor's hands and held them close to him. Interlaced his fingers with his own and leaned forward to press his lips against Victor's soft forehead.

"It…It's ok. Ah'm sorry." He said quietly and with one final squeeze of his hands he let them fall.

He had meant everything he said earlier that day, about Victor making him happy then any guitar ever could. He just hoped Victor knew what that really meant.

"So ah'll forget everythin' for the rest of today an' tonight an' concentrate on good thing's… like cake."

Looking up, a soft smile graced Victor's lips and Leeland beamed back at him.

"Friends?" He asked and the green mutant looked perplexed for a moment before nodding his head. A smile appeared next and though it did not quite reach his eyes, it still made Leeland's stomach flutter.

"Friends."

A silence lingered between them before Victor turned and gestured with his head towards the door.

"Come on." He said. "Let's go eat some cake." He started to make his way out of the room when he felt fingers brush up against his own. They linked hands and nothing more was said until the reached the top of the main staircase.

"Hey Victor." Leeland asked as the sounds the common room floated up towards them. "Will yah talk to the triplets with me later?" He asked, he mind still reeling from the contact with Warlock and Victor gently squeezed his hand.

"'Course I will." He replied as they began to descend the stairs, their hands slowly becoming lose until only the tip's stayed together. "I'll even help pin them down while you feed their itty bitty wastes copious amounts of cake."

xxx

Kitty did not exactly make it her habit to avoid Emma, but she was certainly very affective at keeping out of her way. Heck, their classrooms were at opposite sides of the mansion.

Why was it then, when she wanted to desperately talk to her, could she not locate her? She had checked the classrooms and staff room before making her way to see if she was perhaps still in her office. When she couldn't find her there, she risked knocking on the door of Emma and Scott's quarters but again she hit a dead end. She was starting to suspect that perhaps Emma was avoiding her but she threw that idea away as paranoia.

Tiring, she made her way down to the sub-basement and wandered towards the lab. In her hands was the file that Leeland had earlier given to her. Her first initial thought was to find Emma, slam the file down on her desk and demand a thousand and one answers to her questions. She knew, however, that she was letting her dislike of Emma cloud her judgment of the situation. Had to keep telling her self that this was not Emma's fault. It could have been anyone. In some strange parallel world, it could have even been her.

There were questions that needed to be asked though and some kind of action needed to be taken. If Leeland was so intent on revenge, then an intervention had to happen before anyone was hurt, or worse.

The lab was empty and she huffed, wondering if the world was just out to get her today when she was drawn back in by voices. Peering across the room and over towards Hank's office, she could see both he and the allusive woman she had been searching for all afternoon.

"I'd leave them to it I were you." Kitty peered over her shoulder towards Forge, who smiled at her before pointing towards the back of the lab. "I've got coffee." He offered.

The back of the lab was littered with organised piles of scrap metal and various wires. The large cables on the roof twitched as Kitty perched on one of the stools and a hot mug of coffee was placed in front of her. Forge took the seat next to her and peered up at the wiring in the roof. Raising a finger to his lips, he hushed them and Kitty smiled around her mug.

"Doug used to do that." She started as her eyes roamed from the file on her lap and across to what Kitty knew to be Noriko's gauntlets. "Tune up?" She asked.

"Yeah." He started with a stretch, rubbing a fist into his eyes. Kitty wondered when the last time he had a decent nights sleep. "I thought while I was here anyway. Besides, it gives me a chance to adapt them so other peoples powers won't effect them so much." He glanced up at the wires that were now silent, a small smile on his face before the file on Kitty's lap caught his interest. "One of the kid's files?" He asked, pulling what looked to be Leeland's new hearing aids into his workspace.

They were bare without the casing, currently just a jumble of wires In need of soldering.

"Hmm, oh no. Well, sort of. It's Doug's." She said, smoothing her hands over the manila cover. The edges where starting to become soft with wear and she wondered how many times Leeland had opened it and closed it with his eager hands.

"This whole situation is messed up." Kitty looked up as Forge dropped his hands onto the worktop. His metal hand thudded against the top of the table as he stared out at the wall, lips pressed together in a thin line. "And no one around here seems to know what to do about it." He shook his head.

"Well." Kitty started gently, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "I don't think there's anything to be done." Forge gave her a perplexed look. "It's not as if we can ask Doug, or Emma for that matter. She say's she doesn't remember anything but it's deeper than that…and…and I'm not going to push at her for it." There were still questions she wanted to ask regarding herself and Doug but she was not going to bring up what were clearly painful memories for Emma. She would not stoop to that level.

"Frost? What's Frost got to do with-" The door to Beasts office banged open and the sound of heavy footsteps practically stomped their way to the corridor.

"Emma!" Hank called. "Be reasonable, please." The two seemed unaware of their little audience and Emma turned with such ferocity that Kitty was sure that she would give he self-whiplash.

"Reasonable!" She fairly screeched, a very un-Emma like quality. It was so much unlike her that Kitty wondered if she should intervene. As she gently slipped off the stool, she felt a hand on her arm and turned towards Forge who gave a shake of his head.

"I told Stark, no. In the interest of keeping this school safe-"

"That's the point Emma. Keeping the school safe. If you'll just let her talk to him-"

Emma raised her hand, cutting Hank off. "Your xenophobic girl-friend is to go nowhere near him, do I make myself clear?"

Hank gave an exasperated sigh. "Abigail is not Xenophobic, Emma. Though I must admit she's only marginally warmer that you are." The exasperation had fairly melted into a snarl.

"Oh put your claws away McCoy, it's not to late to turn you into a fetching rug-"

"Ok! Ok. Enough of the back and forth, and frankly immature, remarks." Kitty huffed as she came from around the corner and Emma sucked in a breath as if she was preparing a scathing come back.

The file in her hands was clutched to her side and Hank made to move forward, a frown creased upon his face. "Kitty, why have you got that file?" He asked and the woman looked down at her hands before pursing her lips to look up at Emma. "Because Leeland gave it to me?"

"What file?" Emma asked, her attention back on Hank.

"It's nothing-" Hank went to step forward, his hard eyes back on Kitty who pulled a face and stepped back. The file was now out for Emma to take and she did so with a snap and gave it a curious glace.

It was as if the temperature in the room had dropped and Emma's cold eyes snapped upwards, her lips curled in a snarl. "Why has the boy got this? Who gave it to him!"

Hank sighed and gave a great shake of his head. "He's desperate for answers, Emma, one's that you won't give him!"

"You had no right!" She thrust the file back at Kitty who barely caught it in her out stretched hands. The difference between how Leeland treated it and how Emma had treated it was not lost on Kitty.

"He started asking me questions about the Technarchy, what would you have me do? Lie to him?"

"How on Earth does he know about the alien?"

"Because." Beast ground out through gritted teeth, reigning in his anger and frustration. "In your brilliant act of guardian-ship, you forgot to ask him a few simple questions."

"We questioned him, when the stupid boy told us the tale of when he idiotically climbed a pylon for a kite."

"Well you should have pressed harder. Maybe you should have asked whether or not he had any imaginary friends?" It seemed such a laughable thing to say that it hung in the air for a few moments. Silence filled the room as the two glared at each other before Emma pursed her lips.

"He means Warlock." Came Forge's disembodied voice before he stepped into the wider space of the laboratory, his hands on his hips. The metal leg clunked loudly on the floor, the sound echoing around the room. He took a cursory glance at Hank, who gave him an appreciative nod of his head, and then back to Emma.

"He knew about Warlock, Emma and has done for years."

Emma took a deep breath through her nose. It seemed to vibrate through her whole body, her anger controlled through little ticks. She exhaled and raised her chin.

"Doug was the boy's father. You can't change that, Emma, no more than you can change the colour of the sky or who raised him for best part of two decades. What's important now is that he has some resemblance of normality and an outlet for what he is. This isn't just a mutant child we're talking about anymore." Hank schooled his features, the anger fading away into something akin to remorse for his outbursts.

Forge glanced between the two, knowing that there was something more to their words but he kept his comments to himself. Kitty, he noted, was only looking at Emma as if waiting for an opening with the file clutched between her fingers.

"Oh but you are delightful, _darling_. Do you honestly think he'll have any resemblance of normality? Will any of them?" Emma seethed before pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose, trying to desperately soothe out the on coming storm of a forming migraine.

"Fine." Came Emma's clipped response after what seemed like an entirety of silence. Hank's features relaxed.

"But I sit in on the meeting, and only if the boy agrees to talk to the snot-haired cow." Emma started and Hank growled. "I expect you to inform him in the morning." She sniffed and made to turn to leave the room without one final comment over her shoulder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a benefit to prepare for." She left, moving out into the corridor, kitty rushing after her and calling her name.

Forge let out a breath, exhaling and shaking his head at the same time. "Gee Hank, did you offend her sensibilities? What was that all about?" He asked motioning towards the empty space that Emma and Kitty had been stood.

Hank tilted his head towards him and gave a defeated roll of his shoulders. "I regret to inform you that I haven't a clue anymore."

"Emma, wait! Please!" Kitty called, catching up with the woman who was scarily faster in high heels than she herself was in flats. They were also three words Kitty thought she would never say together and for once it appeared that Emma agreed with her.

The woman turned, peering down her nose at Kitty as her eyes landed on the file.

"Pryde, I have better thing's to do than reminisce in a corridor-"

"No, it's just…" Kitty started before tilting her head to the side and pressing her lips into a thin line. "When I was thirteen years old, you asked me to join your school. I was excited, and scared, because both you and Xavier seemed to want me, a bratty little know it all."

"I recall the glasses-"

"Shut up."

Emma blinked but drew her arms up to cross them over her chest.

"I just need to get this off my chest Emma or I don't think I'm going to be able to function around you much longer."

_Pitty._ Thought Emma, but she schooled her features.

"Then I'd found out you'd asked the cute boy from my computer club and of course I was going to go to the interview if he was going. Poor Doug…" She gave a tiny laugh, her fingers digging into the file. "We were all really good at keeping secrets from him…Did you know, back then? I know it seems so far-fetched, god it sounds so stupid, but did you know that that brilliant sixteen-year-old boy was actually the father to your child? The one you cast aside because between both you and Xavier you belittled his powers to the point of bullying."

Emma lifted her chin, her jaw clenched and her breathing was just that little bit heavier than usual. She wanted to laugh at Kitty, call her out on her ridiculous accusations but a pool of ice slowly began to fill up her stomach.

"No." She said easily, voice quiet but firm. "Ramsey wasn't even a blip on my radar." She took a step forward, snatching up the file from Kitty's grip, their eyes locked.

"Poor scrawny little Doug Ramsey, even a nuisance after death. Of course I didn't _know_. Do you honestly think I packed my little self off to England, made a startling connection between a grubby three year old and a dork too close to his computer?" Came her nasty reply, all professionalism snapping away in the heat of the moment.

"I only asked." Kitty bit back through gritted teeth before she snatched the file back. "This belongs to your son. Oh-I'm sorry…I meant the _blip_ on your radar." Kitty pushed past Emma, her footsteps losing the heat after a few moments as she looked over her shoulder. Emma was still facing the other way, her shoulder trembling with contorted anger.

"I know it's not your fault." She started softly. "What happened to you-"

"Don't." Emma took a deep breath before walking in the opposite direction. "You've made your point Pryde. You've made it quite clear."

xxx

The Xavier institute could be seen from the top of a hill situated not a half a mile away. Strategically, it was not the best place to house nearly almost all of the mutants on the planet given how easy it would be to snipe from. The forest, however, gave them good coverage and only a very skilled sniper or mercenary would be able to get a half decent shot. Perhaps a bullet would ricochet of the wall. Perhaps.

Jonathon Williams was a _very_ skilled mercenary. The scope on the regulation Stark Industries Heckler & Koch UMP45 was sharp and crisp and smelled a little too much of the factory. Though it was perfect for the seeing the world through an orange glow and straight down into the very grounds on the school. It was not, however, very practical at seeing through walls.

The sounds of footsteps crunching the frozen ground behind him alerted Jonathon and with his eye still on his metaphorical target he reached for his 9mm and pointed it straight to his side.

"You do realize that you're breaking about several federal, and I believe one international, laws by using that as a pair of binoculars." Came a smooth, yet highly amused voice in just the right place for Jonathon to make a clean kill. He knew, however, that he would not be killing Tony Stark that night.

The gun was cocked and he brought it back towards his body before tilting his head to the side. Stark was dressed in a lucrative tuxedo, his hands pushed into his pockets and a smirk worming it's way into the corner of his mouth. Saying nothing, Jonathon got to his feet with both guns close to him. He glanced down at the forest that gave the school its coverage. "And I'm pretty sure that suit of yours has landed you in more hot water than my little gun. Sorry, sorry-_your_ little gun."

"Come on, this is _Versace_." Stark grinned, knowing full well that Jonathon did not mean his tuxedo. His face became serious again when the other man did not respond and instead stared off at the school. "What are you doing here McCorby?"

"Williams." Came his reply.

"Pardon?"

Jonathon took a breath and gave a small raise of his eyes, almost a roll but not quite. "That name is one of the only thing's that I have left connecting me to my son. I'd appreciate if you'd start using it if you're going to address me." He sounded bored, tired almost and finally turned to look at Stark in his expensive suit that was doing nothing to keep out the December cold.

Stark nodded, his face set in a stoic expression. "I can't let you see the boy, Williams."

"I know." Said Jonathon. "Just wanted to make sure he got a cake." And a genuine smile curled the old mercenary's smile and Stark was not quite sure if it was a good thing or not.

xxx

Emma's office was quiet, dark and just that little bit too tranquil for comfort. Beyond the room and down the corridor she could hear the voices of the students, excited and laughing as they celebrated a birth that had caused her so much anguish and distress.

But that was when she was younger. She was much older now and more appreciative that what had happened in her past did not have to dictate what she did now. Of course, that was terribly hypercritical of her as many of her past actions now determined the life she led.

The glass in her hand was filled with the finest scotch, which burnt her throat whenever she took a sip. The ice would clink against her teeth and the pooling of warmth in her stomach made her forget with each little sip. That suited her just fine.

Someone knocked on her door and she merely sighed in response as Scott came into the room carrying her coat and a concerned expression. "Why are you sat in the dark?" He asked, crossing the room to hand her the coat. She could barely raise her eyes to him though as she set the glass on the desk and took the coat in her hands. It was soft and warm but not too heavy to look ridiculous at the benefit.

"Because it saves on electricity. Where's Stark?"

"Waiting outside like I asked. I didn't want him anywhere near the children."

"No." Said Emma, slipping the coat on and making sure the buttons were done in the correct order. Heavens, what _would_ people say if she turned up looking tipsy? "You mean that _you_ didn't want the _children _near him."

"Same difference." Scott muttered as he peered out of the curtain and down towards the waiting car. "Are you sure this is still a good idea?"

"Darling, we may not be on speaking terms with Mr. Stark but I can assure you that I would not miss the opportunity to rub a few snide comments in his face in front of some of the most influential people we know. This benefit is important, Scott." She added seriously, finally raising her gaze to look her husband in the eyes. Their marriage was a complicated one, full of the ups and downs any normal couple had but the last few weeks had started to take it's toll on the relationship.

Hidden children usually did that. Physic affairs also did that, but that matter was firmly in the past.

"We have a duty towards the mutants at this school and the ones who have gone missing. Any help and we'll be grateful for it." Even if she had to grit her teeth and speak to people she'd rather see boiled in acid.

"I don't trust Stark, or his motives." Scott grumbled and Emma patted him on the arm. "I know Darling."

"All this cozying up to us, the x-men? What's going on and what's he planning?"

Emma looked up at Scott as they crossed the office, and she could tell that it was a simple throw away comment but it struck her. She knew Tony wanted the x-men on his side for reasons not yet clear to her. Something about a brewing war, but she had had more wars than drunken one-night stands. Something quite hard to rectify when you were _happily_ married.

"Play nice with the other superheroes Cyclops, or Stark won't let us play with his toy's anymore."

They left the office and the sound of the children carried down the corridor. Emma took a deep breath, locked her hands around her clutch bag and walked in silence with Scott towards the front door.

They passed the common room where the children and their chaperones-Kitty and Peter- were gathered around the sofas. In the middle of the chatting, laughing and Nick Gleason being the loudest he could be, sat Leeland. Quiet and self-conscious he sat pulling his sleeves down over his hands and almost compulsively pushing strands of hair behind his ears.

Pausing, Emma watched from the door as Leeland turned to answer a question and his sheepish smile slowly turned into a grin. His smile was the spitting image of her brothers in profile. Her heart skipped a beat and a gentle hand was pressed against her shoulder. "Emma?"

"Hmm." She turned away from the common room and a small smirk came to her lips. "I told Logan to get them up all up for a 4am training session. I heard Keller had procured alcohol."

"But…but he's only sixteen." But Emma could hear him trying not to laugh and her mind sprung with images of the older students nursing little headaches and queasy tummies the next day. "Remind me to place a bucket and mop in the Danger Room in the morning."

"We are terrible teachers."

"…Think how terrible we'd be as parents." Emma muttered.

xxx

Leeland squirmed in his seat on the sofa, stretching the jumper he was wearing to the point of no return. So many people were looking at him and smiling as if his birthday was a wonderful thing to behold. He knew that wasn't true and honestly he didn't mind being used as an excuse to party. He just wished someone would admit it and leave him to it.

The girls were nowhere to be seen and that both saddened and annoyed him. Leaning against the sofa, David was chatting away to Noriko seeming oblivious to any 'gift' he had helped the girls create. He would just have to ask him later.

Victor was sat next to him, their arms pressed together. Every time he moved, a shock would develop low in his stomach. It would make his cheeks red and his voice breathless.

"Alani! Hurry up." Julian shouted before he leaned over the sofa. The music was not loud, so it was not as if he had to shout. The boy looked impatient however and when he leaned over Leeland he grumbled about 'running out of time.'

"You'll never guess what I got Laura to score for us." He grinned mischievously, voice low so no one around them could hear. There seemed to be a spring in his step and a smile in his voice. If anything he sounded a little drunk. It made Leeland grin and shake his head.

"Ah'm pretty good at guessing when ah don't actually 'ave to guess Julian."

Julian said nothing but he did laugh and pull backwards just as Ernst came up to the side of the sofa and tugged on his sleeve. Looking down at the little girl Leeland smiled and she grinned up at him. "Happy birthday." She said quietly. "Can I sit with you, 'cos Santo and Sidney have taken up the other sofa." She said with a huff, her little arms folding over her chest as she scowled in annoyance. Looking up, Leeland glanced over at the sofa in question and saw that the two boys were indeed taking up the whole thing with their sheer mass. Smiling, Leeland nodded and helped Ernst up onto his knee just in time for Alani to come through the common room doors with her masterpiece.

There was a small cheer when the cake finally arrived, the lights dimmed and the candles flickered gently in the air. Alani beamed, the red markings on her face brightening up her grin in the glow of the fire.

The cake was pale and fluffy with no icing but the smell of bananas mixing with the candle wax made Leeland smile.

"It's a sugar free banana cake. Got the recipe off the internet." She said sitting it down on the coffee table.

"Sugar free!" Nick exclaimed with a frown, throwing his arms around his chest. "How can you eat cake without any sugar in it!" He was sat down on the floor near the table and had been almost drooling for the cake. Now he simply looked horrified. The others around them laughed and Leeland smiled sympathetically at the poor wolf child.

"No, stupid." Said Ernst, leaning down to glare at Nick and very nearly slipped from Leeland's knee. "It's fake sugar, real sugar makes Leeland sick." She rolled her large eyes and crossed her arms as if that was the end of it. Nick opened his mouth to argue back, his little hands clutched in anger when Leeland quickly cut in.

"Thanks Alani!" He said, a little quicker than he meant to. "Yah didn't 'ave too." He added more calmly, glad that his arms were busy keeping Ernst on his lap.

"It's just a cake Leeland." She said, kneeling in front of the table but Leeland shrugged, the sheepish smile back on his lips. "Well thank you anyway."

"Are we gonna gush about the cake all night, or do we get it to eat it too!" Someone grumbled from the other side of the room.

Turning to Ernst, Leeland nodded towards the cake. "Wanna help me blow out the candles."

"Sure." She beamed. "But you've got to make a wish." She said with a pointed finger and Leeland nodded. He indulged her, too many wishes on his mind for one mere cake. Perhaps if he had several birthdays in one row then he could make all the wishes that came to mind. For now he hoped the girls would turn up and talk to him.

Together they took a deep breath, leaned forward and blew out the candles. There was a cheer and a round of happy birthdays. Resting back, Ernst turned to him as people clattered for plates. "What did you wish for?" She asked quietly and Leeland merely smiled at her. "Wunt be much of ah wish if ah told'cha."

XXX

Making his excuses, Victor was able to sneak away from the common room and headed towards the main staircase. He had not been able to gain that much information from Leeland-who seemed far too enticed with cake to really care. But he did know that whatever the Cuckoo's had said to him-done to him-had shaken the other boy.

He knew from past experiences of what the girls were like and that they probably had not truly meant to scare his friend. Still, Victor said he would talk to them and so talk to them he would.

First he checked Leeland's room, just incase. But he found nothing out of the ordinary except for maybe the goggles on the bed. From the edge of the room he eyed them, contemplated about taking a step towards them but thought better of it.

He was all too aware of the consequences of going into someone else's room without permission. Especially if that room happened to be in the girls dormitory. Not that it made a blind bit of difference to Victor. It was a rule implemented to keep the boy's away from the girls and Victor had argued on one or two occasions that surely if they wanted to keep 'canoodling' to a minimum that they may as well have stuck him with the girls too.

Knocking on the Cuckoo's door, Victor waited for a reply that never came. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door and stuck his head inside. It was deserted; the three identical pink beds were made up and pristine with not a wrinkle in sight. Victor frowned. Stepping inside, he quietly closed the door and with a hand on his hips he glanced around.

Now Victor was not the messiest boy around, that was Nick, nor was he the tidiest, David's realm, but the girl's room was beyond normal. Then again, so were the girls. But they were clearly not there and Victor sighed, wondering if perhaps he had passed them in the kitchen?

With a sigh and a roll of his neck, he tried to formulate what he would say to them and wandered over towards the window. The girls dormitory on a whole had the better view of the grounds, over looking the forest and out towards the rest of Salem Centre.

It was already dark out and a soft layer of frost was starting to turn the ground white. Snow would be coming soon and as Victor's thoughts wandered, so too did his eyes.

He spotted the girls.

For a moment or two he didn't actually believe they were out side and heading toward the dark seclusion of the forest. A second glance proved that what he was seeing was correct and the boy frowned. It was probably nothing, especially as all of the students wandered into the forest every now and again. When situations became hard to cope with in side the school Victor would run off and hide, camouflaging himself into the surroundings.

But something was not right. Not with Leeland and not with the girls and if they were heading out into the forest, then so was he.

Meanwhile, in the noise of the common room Leeland had to endure Julian's half whispering, half trying not to laugh into his ear. Something about following him and a 'surprise.' But the older boy had frowned when the sharp tang of alcohol wafted past him. It smelled like _Jack Daniels_ and cheap cola, enough to take off the edge but not enough to dull the effects. It was one of drinks he and Brian were keen on mixing when they first learning how to actually drink.

He watched, slightly amazed, as Julian kept his composure and was actually able to walk towards the back of the room where the large patio like doors were situated. He slipped around of the curtains obscuring the door and Leeland followed suit.

Nobody really battered an eyelid as he mumbled something about 'getting fresh air.' As he headed outside after Julian, he was all too aware of the cold suddenly trying to seep into his jumper-covered body. Quickening his pace, he jogged to catch up with the other boy who seemed far too merry for Leeland's liking. "Julian where are we goin', an' 'ow t'ell did you sneak booze into _Fort Knox_?" He rubbed his hands together before gesturing over his shoulder towards the X-mansion.

Julian glanced over his shoulder and grinned at him. "…A little peace offering." Was all he said and Leeland blinked, unsure what that meant but he followed anyway. They headed into the depths of the forest and the blonde began to chew on his lip, casting glances back and forth between the school and Julian. Perhaps he should have just waited for Victor to come back from the bathroom. "Seriously, ah think we should go back."

"_Seriously_, I think you should be quiet."

Leeland pressed his lips together with a frown, his stomach twisted with unease and he had half a mind to flick Julian on the back of his head. But Julian was drunk, and telekinetic, and the older boy did not want to spend the remainder of his birthday climbing out of a tree that Julian had stuck him in with a flick of his hand.

Victor slipped past the common room not wanting to draw attention to himself. Grabbing up his coat, he slipped out one of the side doors and hurried to find the triplets. Yet once he was in the thick of the forest, stray voices carried away from the direction the triplets were heading. The boy frowned and came to a halt, turning his ear to listen to the familiar voices of Julian, sounding a little too energetic, and a quieter nervous Leeland.

Victor sighed. "God dammit." He veered off and away from the girls and headed in the direction of the boys.

XXX

Jonathon tried hard not heave the great sigh that sat like a heavy weight on his heart and chest. Time was ticking away and the cold was starting to seep into his skin. This kind of work had been so much easier when he was younger. Then again, many thing's had been easier when he was younger and not the sole career and provider for a snot nosed little rugrat whom he would not give up for the world.

But that _rugrat_ was now eighteen and there was only so much more molly coddling Jonathon was prepared to do. Even if it had to be in shadows less Tony Stark saw fit to strike that from him as well. Couldn't even look at his son in the flesh; had to be through the lens of a sniper riffle.

_What have you become Jonny McCorby? _Asked a little voice in the back of his head that he was certain wasn't his. Sounded like his mothers, but she had been dead longer than Leeland had even been alive. Probably his conscious. _Great_.

Or maybe he was finally starting to lose it.

A sound off to his left alerted him to the presence of several beings and Jonathon inwardly cursed. _Losing it?_ Asked the sneering voice, now sounding more like his father. _You've lost it._

"You're not very good at hiding are you?" Asked a young girl, her voice cold and for a moment he presumed it to be Emma. It was far too young, however.

"Hid _him_ quite well though." Came the voice again, slightly over to the right this time and Jonathon pushed himself from behind the large oak he was using as a base point. He stepped around it, smaller firearm cocked but the safety on as the girl spoke again.

"Though we suspect _they_ wanted you to believe that."

There was not one girl, but three. Jonathon peered across the clearing in the forest and his gaze settled on the identical crops of pale blonde hair. Their cold icy eyes reminded him of the headstrong girl in his office all those years ago and his brow creased in slight confusion.

"What do you want?" He asked them, taking it their appearance once again but not commenting.

The girls did not seem frightened by the man and his gun; on the contrary they looked almost bored, impassive even. It was not something Jonathon was used to, but he did not let his stance down or even lower his gun.

"We have news concerning your son." The one of the right spoke first.

"It would be most beneficial if you listened and paid attention." Added the middle girl.

"Something Leeland seems rather useless at doing." Said the far left and with no indication that this at all bothered her. Jonathon raised an eyebrow before he took a step forward to peer closer at the girls. They could not have been older than fifteen and yet the way they spoke had him on his toes.

"Then speak." Said Jonathon. "I haven't got time to play games." He almost sneered at them, but children tended to be a lot brighter than most adults gave them due credit for. _And braver too_. The voice in his head added as he thought about the peculiar green boy and his blatant disregard for the mercenary with the gun.

The girls looked at each other then and the middle one let a slight scowl appear on her otherwise blank face. "This is not a game Jonathon Williams, this is your son-

"-Our _brother_-"

"You sole purpose for living, correct?"

Jonathon blanched, his stomach turning for a moment before he took a deep breath and righted himself. "Brother?" He asked, skirting around the last comment and they nodded as one.

He clenched his jaw and cocked his head to the side slowly as he gazed upon the girls once more. Of all the self-righteous thing's Emma Frost had claimed, he certainly believed that she would have made a terrible mother. Yet here before him was three of her little, albeit disturbing, girls and Jonathon wanted to do nothing more than find Frost and-

"And don't you dare think about our Mother like that!" They said as one, but their lips remained still. Hissing, Jonathon threw his hand up to the side of his head and winced. Truly, it had been years since anyone had been able to peek inside his mind and scramble it about. Yet the sheer force of the little girls was enough to make his eyes water and his head pound in pain. It was dull like a headache; yet sharp enough to draw breath from him.

Staggering backwards, he tried hard not to drop the gun. It felt slippery in his hands; sweat pouring from them like he was a fresh-faced teenager and this was his first time handling a firearm.

"What right do you have to assume anything? Your sole purpose is Leeland and Leeland only." Their voices shot across the front of his head as his back smacked into the old tree. Pain shot up towards his neck and he gritted his teeth and feared for a moment that they would crack with the pure force of his grinding.

"Ok!" He hissed, never for a moment taking his eyes from the girls. "What do you want!" He demanded and the pain vanished so quickly that it took his breath. It was in that moment that he realised he was now at the complete mercy of three little girls he _could _have ripped in two with his bare hands. Not that he ever would. Child killers were something Jonathon could not abide. Not even _Wade Wilson_ stooped _that_ low.

The girls stepped forward as one. Their demeanor, calm but there was a crackling energy about them. "We want you to find the alien, Mr. Williams. If you find him, then you'll find the people who want our brother."

"Alien?" Jonathon blinked.

"Tell me." He said stepping towards them, "What you know of S.W.O.R.D. What do they want with my boy?"

The girls looked at one another, as if debating internally whether or not they should tell this man anything.

"…Please." Asked Jonathon quietly, his eyes suddenly scanning the surrounding area as the sound of young voices pierced the air. They were male, young but not close enough for them to discover his place by the tree.

"We could show you….if you'll let us?" They asked as one and Jonathon realised his time was slowly ticking away. It would not be long before he was due back to brief his new task force on their mission. The tracking tag around his ankle made a quiet beep to remind him and the girl's eyes slowly glanced towards it.

"Ok." He agreed. "But I can't go anywhere near the mansion-"

"You won't need to." The girl in the middle stepped forward and gently lifted her hands towards the man's temples.

"Try not to…think to much." A small smile appeared on her lips as her sisters stepped around her and repeated the gesture with their hands.

Jonathon tried to step backwards, a question forming on his lips as his back bumped into the tree. "Hold on a sec-" He gasped but a great flash of white light erupted inside his mind.

Images flashed inside the mercenary's mind of a young boy with a flash of honey blonde hair and dark green eyes. For a split second, Jonathon believed it to be his son and his heart skipped a beat. As the information pooled inside his head, he came to understand that this was not his son. This was Leeland's father. His _real _father.

It hit him harder than he thought it would.

Whispers of knowledge about Douglas Ramsey's life, his mutation and his death all collected inside Jonathon's mind. The connection to the alien known as Warlock made him collapse to his knees, the bond the two friends shared and how this ultimately affected his son.

Now he knew why S.W.O.R.D wanted to investigate his teenage son, the parts of him that were not of Earth origin at least.

And why _The Facility _wanted him back.

_TBC ~_

**A/N:** I am so sorry that this has taken over a year to update. Excuses are shit. I'll post a longer explanation over on my tumblr. It's stem-cell if anyone is interested.  
Babel Fish also has a tumblr: babelfishff (which is still under construction)

Thank you to everyone who has fav'd this and asked after me over the year. I can't thank you guy's enough for your patience. ~


	27. A Pretty Hazy Notion

**Title: **Babel Fish  
**Author/Artist: **Blue Stem Cell  
**Universe: **Marvel (Alternate Universe)  
**Rating: **16 +  
**Genre: **Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot  
**Summary: **"No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.

**Authors note at end. **

**C****hapter ****27: **A Pretty Hazy Notion

_Whispers of knowledge about Douglas Ramsey's life, his mutation and his death all collected inside Jonathon's mind. The connection to the alien known as Warlock made him collapse to his knees, the bond the two friends shared and how this ultimately affected his boy._

_Now he knew why S.W.O.R.D wanted to investigate his teenage son, the parts of him that were not of Earth origin at least._

_And why The Facility wanted him back._

The light dimmed and the girls stepped back, leaving Jonathon a moment to recover his breath.

"We may have…we may have done something silly." They spoke quietly and Jonathon swallowed hard as he got to his feet. It was hard not to shake after such an assault on the mind but somehow he managed it with a degree of decorum.

The girls looked at each other, the middle child biting her lip in worry. "We gave him a birthday present and lied to him. We didn't know he would react like that."

"Like what?"

The girls glanced at each other before informing Jonathon precisely what had happened when they gave Leeland their birthday present to him. How he had fitted on the carpet and the goggles had begun to burn into their brother's skin.

"The institute likes to keep old artifacts. We were sure they had once belonged to Cypher or Warlock."

"So why the lie?" Jonathon asked turning to glance over his shoulder and at the nearing voices of teenage boy's. Perhaps they were looking for the girl's?

"We wanted him to trust us." They said almost sadly and Jonathon couldn't help but smile apologetically at them.

"If you want him to trust you, then don't lie to him. If there's one thing that boy can't stand, it's liars." He said with a hint of regret, knowing that his relationship with son had been a little sour the past few years. The last few months certainly hadn't helped that.

Suddenly, the sound of snapping twigs and a slur of swear words made Jonathon tense and the girls glance over their shoulders. Through the clearing stepped the scruffy little warlock boy.

Brian swayed on his feat, his hands clutched around a bottle of dark substance and a rolled up cigarette teetering in the corner of his mouth. Looking upwards he squinted before his dark blue eye's widened dramatically. "Uncle Jonny?" He asked stupidly and the mercenary fairly growled. He stalked forward, grabbing his idiot of a godson by the elbow and raising the bottle to his nose. The sharp tang of whisky and coke assaulted his senses and he was sure the boy had poured gin in there too.

"I told you to go home Brian Sier." He said releasing the boy with a disapproving frown. The warlock scowled and gave a roll of his shoulders before taking a deep drag on the cigarette in his mouth. Jonathon arched an eyebrow as the scent of a tobacco mixed with something else wafted into the cold nights air.

"Mah best friend's eighteen. One last shindig in the States, then ahm outta 'ere. Ah promise."

"Your Mam must be going mad with worry-"

"Well mah Mam's not 'ere, is she." He snapped back, the cold air sobering him slightly but doing nothing for his stinking temper. "An' you shouldn't be here either." He frowned, looking up at his godfather who should have been sat rotting in a jail and not out in the open. Not that he wasn't glad to see him, just a little perplexed as to what he was doing in the grounds of the school and wearing what looked suspiciously like new Stark licensed gear.

"No." Said a surprised voice from the other side of the clearing and two of them looked up. "Yah really shouldn't be 'ere." Leeland said quietly, glancing between his father and the triplets.

"Hello, Dad." He said quietly, a hand coming up to self-consciously rub at his ears. From behind him Julian cleared his throat. "Surprise…" He said lamely before the girl's presence caught his attention. "Oh." He gulped as the triplets crossed their arms over their chests and arched an eyebrow in a very good impersonation of Ms. Frost.

Leeland glanced at the girls, shuddered and turned back towards his father.

Jonathon walked forward, taking his son's chin between his fingers and examined his ears. The boy pressed his lips into a thin line as his father brushed his fingers past his ears and was careful not knock the temporary hearing aids. Leeland pulled free from his father's grasp before motioning with his head to a little way over.

His friend's watched them go and he could just make out Julian questioning what the girls were doing there.

"None of your business, Keller." Was the last thing he heard before he turned his full attention towards his father.

"I shouldn't be here Lee'. If Stark knew I was here-"

"It's my birthday." Leeland started, looking at his father as if seeing him for the first time. Jonathon blinked before he gave a slow nod of his head and opened his mouth to speak but Leeland beat him too it. "Ah'm gonna be prepped for surgery tomorrow." He started overly cheerful before his expression waned and he gave an audible gulp. His eyes caught sight of the gun in his father's hand and he stared at it if it were an extra head. "An' ah'm…frankly terrified, so could you please jus' shut up and give me a hug or something?"

His father smiled sadly at his son as he holstered his gun but there was an awkward moment where neither of them moved. One look at his son's miserable expression was enough to clear away any of the uneasiness and he took the boy in his arms. Leeland had always been a gangly and awkwardly put together boy. His father could feel the bones of his shoulders through his jacket and he tightened his hold. He realised he never wanted to let the kid go. _His kid_.

"Happy Birthday Leeland." He smiled quietly into the boy's scruffy wad of hair before pressing his lips to his temple. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He added before blinking, wondering what had possessed him to say that. But he visibly relaxed when Leeland's grip on him intensified and he smiled. "I'll sort all this out Lee', I promise." He whispered but the boy's hold on him began to shake and Jonathon frowned as the boy took a deep shuddering breath near his ear.

"Leeland?" He pulled back, holding him firmly by the shoulders and watching as his son tried to wipe furiously at his face. "Ah'm not cryin'." He mumbled, a hot blush creeping across his nose and Jonathon gave a small shake of his head and squeezed his shoulders.

"Do yah really mean it, though."

"What? That we'll sort this mess out and we can go home? Of course-"

"No…the other thin'." The boy rubbed the back of his head, still embarrassed with his eyes firmly affixed on his fathers.

Jonathon blinked before frowning; his brow's creasing together. Did his son really have to ask him if he was proud of him? Worse still, was the boy so unsure because his father didn't tell him enough, or at all? His face relaxed as he smiled tiredly and nodded his head. "Yes Leeland, and I'm proud of the man you're becoming."

The boy smiled, rubbing the back of his neck furiously before shaking his head. "All right, don't over do it." He said with an amused little smirk before taking a sobering breath.

Jonathon smiled before a little frown appeared on his face. Something certainly looked different about the boy. The dark smudges under his eyes, which were once a permanent feature, seemed lighter then usual. There was a glow on his cheeks that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Have you been taking your insulin at the right time?" Jonathon asked, mercenary mode forgotten as parent mode sneaked in. The boy blinked before heaving a great sigh and rolling his eyes.

"Yes." He grumbled. "An' 'ave been measurin' it as well." He huffed and Jonathon couldn't help but chuckle.

The wind picked up around them and the smell of early winter settled in around the father and son. The cold always smelled funny to Leeland. It was like the smell of water was trapped all around them and he took a deep breath before plowing on regardless.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Leeland?" Jonathon tilted his head as he searched the boy's face. The way his brow would crease in frustration and his mouth turning into a thin flat line were almost foreign to him. _Almost_.

The boy swallowed, looking anywhere but his father before opening his mouth to speak. He paused though when the sound of footsteps crept closer towards them and blinked owlishly when a startled young boy came from between the trees.

"Lee?" Victor frowned, glancing between father and son. His gaze rested just that little bit longer on Jonathon and the mercenary shifted so the gun was no longer in view.

When he looked back to Leeland, his stomach rolled. The other boy was grinning at him and Victor's brow furrowed slightly.

"What?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder and back towards the mansion. "I thought I left you on the sofa?" Bemused, he couldn't help but smile when a laugh escaped Leeland.

"Yeah. Julian is…er…Ah think Julian might be a bit drunk." He rubbed the back of his neck before shuffling from foot to foot. Victor squinted into the distance and sure enough there was Julian leaning on the warlock boy with a smile that screamed intoxication.

Victor huffed before glancing at the father and son. He excused himself with a small smile in Leeland's direction. When he passed by Jonathon, their eye's met and their gaze lingered for a moment. For a split second it was as if he was transported back a year ago, staring into the eyes of one of the purifiers with their guns still hot from recent fire.

The boy quickly looked away and stomped across the small space over towards the others. "I can smell that from all the way back there!" Leeland heard him exclaim before turning back to his Dad with a goofy little smile in the corner of his mouth. Leeland looked back at Jonathon, blinking a moment at his father's amused expression before swallowing the nausea that had decided to settle in his stomach.

"Dad, there's summat ah need to tell you-" A hand clasped his shoulder, cutting off his sentence and Jonathon smiled at him.

"I know, Lad."

"W-what." Leeland blinked stupidly and watched as his father peered across at the little group of children. Victor was now berating a unapologetic Brian "…and I don't care what the legal age is in _your_ country!..." as Julian tried to stifle his drunken giggles and the girls stared across at all three of them.

"I like him." The hand on his shoulder gave a firm squeeze before it was gone. Leeland felt his nose and cheeks burn as he tried to splutter out something coherent.

"I should go." The old mercenary frowned at something past Leeland and the boy gave an awkward nod of his head. It was as if all the words had been knocked out of him by that one sentence of acceptance. The world felt a little of kilt.

"Ah'm not gonna see you again, ah'm I?" Leeland suddenly asked and Jonathon gave a small shake of his head.

"I don't think so lad. Not for a while at least. I need to make it safe for you when you come home-" He cut himself off, smiling despite the circumstance. "If you want to come home."

Leeland nodded a little reluctantly, rolling his bottom lip into his mouth. He was not about to start crying like a toddler just because he wouldn't see his Dad for a few weeks. Would it be months though? Perhaps years! Suddenly panic arose inside his chest and his insides squirmed with pain.

It was not the kind of pain that meant he was in trouble at school, where the punishment was harsh to drive the lesson home. No, this kind of pain was worse. The memory came from nowhere and he had a sudden flash of his Dad and Aunt Josie collapsing in the hospital in anguish because Uncle Kwon wasn't going to wake up.

"Be careful!" he blurted out, unsure where the feeling had come from and struggling not to cover his ridiculous mouth with his fingers. Jonathon regarded him with a bemused smirk.

"I'm always…" He trailed off, choosing a better choice of words. "I will be." He settled on and Leeland gave a sheepish nod of his head.

"Have a good birthday Lee', and don't let that idiot get you drunk." He pointed to where Brian was standing with his attention half turned towards them. "And try and make sure he goes home. I bet Josie's sick with worry-"

"-Dad. You're fussing." Leeland muttered with his hand back on his neck, rubbing at it furiously.

Jonathon only smiled and gave a soft nod of his head before reaching over and ruffling his hand through Leeland's mess of hair. "Dad!" He battered the hands away with a scowl as Jonathon laughed and took a step back. The awkwardness had pleasantly dispersed and the two were left smiling at each other.

"One thing before I go, I think those girl's have an apology for you." He gestured over towards the triplets who were regarding them both with guarded expressions. Leeland frowned before realisation dawned on him.

"What did they tell you?" He asked, a note of panic in his voice but Jonathon could only smile at him sadly.

"More like, what did they _show_ me? That imaginary friend you were so angry at when you were little? I'll find him."

Leeland felt his stomach churn. The girls had shown his father Warlock and perhaps they had shown him Doug as well. He swallowed and opened his mouth to say something but Jonathon simply dragged him into a one armed hug and spoke into his wad of hair.

"You're _my_ boy. Where you came from is neither here nor there. I've not done right by you-

"-Dad. It doesn't matter." Leeland mumbled into Jonathon's winter jacket. The cold had wormed its way into the fabric of the coat but beyond that was the hint of Jonathon that Leeland had grown up with. The scent he would wrap around himself when he would hide in his father's wardrobe. It was comforting and he was suddenly homesick.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to pry himself away but Jonathon only held him closer. The boy resigned himself and let his forehead rest on his father's shoulder and Jonathon's words flowed over him. "It does matter, Leeland. It matter's to me. I only ever wanted you to be happy and safe." Since the day he'd taken him, that was all his father had ever wanted for him. Be it safe and loved with his mother or living off with a childless couple.

Breaking the hug, he glanced down at the job that turned into a son. This boy, who he knew deep down, was dangerous in the wrong hands but all he saw was his scruffy in-a-world-of-his own kid.

"I never wanted you to have the kind of life I had."

Leeland frowned, his mouth parting. "You never talk about that." He said quietly. He'd only ever had snippets of what his father's life was like when he was much younger than he was. It didn't make for a story that you told children.

"No, but you know enough."

Leeland nodded and Jonathon took a deep cleansing breath and gave a genuine smile. "I should go." He squeezed Leeland's shoulder once before stepping back and turning back to head into the depth of the forest. He turned, a sudden thought coming to him but it quickly died upon his lips. "Those girl's want to be your friend. You should make up with them." Maybe having him forge a friendship with his sisters would make up for the lost one with his mother.

With that, Jonathon was gone.

His son watched him retreat, keeping his back in line until it blended into the darkness. Leeland suddenly felt very alone. A crackle of fire in the background killed the deafening silence and he swallowed a terrible feeling into the pit of his stomach.

A hand brushed against his elbow and he peered down into Victor's curious face. He smiled at him and the silence in the forest retreated reminding him that his drunken best friend was setting a terrible example to his classmates.

"Is he ok?" Victor asked, watching Leeland's face carefully as he peered back out into the forest. "Are _you_ ok?"

Leeland nodded his head but it turned into a soft shrug of his shoulders. "I 'ope so. E's a tough old bloke. It doesn't stop me from worryin' 'bout 'im though."

"Come on!" The blonde suddenly exclaimed, a tight smile on his face. "Ah need to tell this great prat off." He started to make his way back towards the others before pausing. Turning, he glanced down at Victor before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Victor's cold cheek. "Thanks for askin'." He spoke quietly as he leaned back up, shoving his hands into the warmth of his pockets.

"Not a problem." Victor smiled up at him before they headed back the way they came. They stayed close yet said little, as the noise of Julian's giggling was enough to fill the night's air.

As it turned out, Julian was a bit of a lightweight. At least, that was how Brian had put it with a smirk. He was sat around a crackling campfire; the smell of wood smoke filled the air, swam in their clothes and choked their hair.

"That's because he's sixteen. Idiot." Victor leaned over the log Brian was perched upon and pinched the bottle of alcohol freely from his loose fingers.

"Oi!" Brian called as Victor strode across the clearing. He held the bottle between two fingers, intent of pouring it out. Before he even had a chance to tip the booze, it was taken out of his own hand by a bright green light. The boy whipped around, watching as Julian's eye's squinted and his hand shook to keep control of his powers.

"Nice one." Brian grinned, nodding his approval at the inebriated mutant. Unfortunately, being in such a state did nothing for the boy's powers. His hand jerked as his head dropped slightly to the side. The bottle shot past their head's, smashing against the tree behind them.

They ducked as shards of glass rained down upon them and their laughter filled the air.

Victor was less than amused when the warlock boy clicked his fingers with a whispered spell. Another bottle of alcohol appeared between his fingers.

Leeland watched with his lips pressed together, suppressing a smile. It felt almost nostalgic. It was like he was back home, hanging out in the disused quarry. They would pass the bottle between them and their friends, huddled around a campfire they had made in an old tire.

It looked as if Victor was about to make a remark about the new bottle. His eyebrows came together in annoyance and his cheeks puffed up in indignation. Leeland couldn't help his sudden smile and the warmth that erupted in the pit of his stomach. Never would he have imagined that someone's annoyance could make them look adorable. He endeavored never to tell Victor that.

Quickly, he stepped forward and his hand came to rest at Victor's elbow. The other boy sharply looked up at him, the annoyance in his eyes suddenly softened and Leeland grinned. "Leave 'em to it, ey? If they wanna spend tomorrow feelin' like they've been run over then let 'em."

Victor frowned across at the other two boys. He opened his mouth to say something when Brian cut across him.

"Lee', tell 'im 'bout when we were fourteen and got off our 'eads on that shit your Dad 'ad 'idin' in the shed." His eye's fairly lit up with mirth as he took a swig before passing it across to Julian.

Leeland scowled before his cheeks coloured in embarrassment.

"You're a terrible excuse for a friend." Came the calm collected voices of the triplets. Leeland had very nearly forgotten about them. They stepped out from the dark of the forest and the crackling fire illuminated their faces. It made them look unearthly, the fire dancing in their pale eyes.

"Oh aye?" Brian smirked, glancing up and over the fire towards the triplets. They crossed their arms simultaneously in a near perfect imitation of Emma Frost.

"An' why would that be then?" He stood up, fairly swaggering towards them. He was at least three inches shorter than they were but what he lacked in height, he made up for in both stock and cockiness.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Julian warned with a smile, his lips pressed around the neck of the bottle. Brian snorted, glancing up at what appeared to be three harmless little girls. "They're Ms. Frosts girls." There was laughter in Julian's voice and Leeland couldn't help but wonder how often he'd used that line.

Brian was un-phased for a moment or two, his face a mixture of bemusement and ease. That was until the girls peered down at him, the fire practically dancing in their overly familiar pale eyes.

"Shit!" The warlock stumbled backwards, his back pressing up against Leeland and Victor. "You came outta that barren Ice Queen!" He choked on his words, his back now pressed firmly up against Leeland's front. The taller boy rolled his eyes, bringing his arm around to rest it on top of his smaller friends head. "Don't be rude." He spoke quietly, lifting his gaze to meet the girl's curious eyes. They tilted their heads at him and he sheepishly glanced down at Brian's head.

"Oi, get of." The warlock spun around, frowning as he tugged at his own dreads and Leeland stifled a laugh behind his fingers. "I ain't bein' rud-what's wrong with yah 'ead?" The mood changed suddenly and Leeland waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "S'nothin'." He said easily, brushing his hair over his ears and stepping back. He immediately regretted the loss of warmth from Victor being pressed up against his side.

Brian came forward quickly and grabbed up his hand pulling it firmly, yet surprisingly gently, out of the way. He reached up and pushed the obscuring locks of hair away to stare at the temporary hearing aid.

"It's fine." Leeland mumbled, mostly to himself, as Brian turned his head to get a good look at the other side of his head. "What 'appened Leeland?" He looked away, seeking out Victor who gave him an encouraging smile.

"It was jus' after yah got away. Everythin' went quiet an' then ah jus' remember lookin' down at my 'ands covered in blood."

Brian turned pale and Leeland frowned. "It's fine, really." He added quickly, unsure as to why his friend had taken on ghastly hue. "Not like ah could 'ear right anyway. They've jus' gotta fix me up." He spoke as if it was nothing more than a routine health check up. Leeland had had more of those then he cared to remember.

Brian turned to Victor, gesturing at Leeland as he did so. "So this is keepin' him safe, huh?"

Victor crossed his arms over his chest and peered at the triplets. "If this is him not being a good friend, then I'd hate to see what he does as an enemy." There was a tease to his voice. Brian snorted in response, turning back to Leeland to question him on what had happened.

_How long have you know about Ms. Frost, Victor? _The girl's collected voice pooled into the boy's head like cold water and the shiver that ran down his spine had nothing to do with the weather.

_Not long._ Came his careful reply, his eyes still firmly on the scene in front of him. Leeland was being awfully sheepish, trying to keep his voice quiet and calm as he explained what had happened with the generator. He was being very careful about what he said about the generator to, Victor noted.

_Will you tell him?_ The girls asked and Victor resisted the urge to glance up at them, his mouth in a thin line. His shoulders and gaze dropped the floor.

_I want to tell him. I can't. _He settled on, his cold fingers rubbing the sides of his arms. The weight of the lie felt heavy in his stomach. Lying made things worse and liars were always caught out in the end. The images that Frost had planted in his mind, however, would haunt him longer than the lie itself.

_I have to live with it. For now. Besides…_

"Girls, don't you have something to say to Leeland?" Victor cleared his throat, surprised at how easy it was to slip back into talking. The triplets gave him a cool stare and Victor wondered if that was surprise he'd caught in their glance.

Brian stopped talking. "Why? What'cha do to 'im?" He turned, one hand out still on Leeland's arm, as he looked the girls up and down. Victor couldn't help but smirk, amused.

"Brian." Leeland warned softly. "It's fine." It seemed, however, as if the warlock had gained back a little of the momentum he had previously lost. He didn't walk over to the girls, but his chin jutted out and the small hold he had on Leeland's arm tightened a little. "It's not fine." He said, strangely sober for the amount of drink he had consumed. "Leeland, you're deaf." He gave the taller boy a sharp look but Leeland could only roll his shoulders.

"An' that's fine."

Brian began to press the issue and Leeland could only smile. He moved, taking his arm from his friends grip to press a cold finger to the smaller boy's lips. Brian frowned; pushing the hand away before rubbing at the rough patch of hair he called a beard.

"Look." Leeland started. "Ah'm fine with this." He looked over at Julian who was watching them with the bottle still pressed to his lips. "Ah mean, ah'm scared. But it's not 'end 'o 'world. Some people are born deaf, an' that fine Brian."

"But you weren't!" Brian stressed and Leeland huffed.

"Ah was born in some lab in the middle of a ruddy desert. Grown in a tube like that mold we kept in your mums shed when we were nine." He swallowed, pursing his lips as he stared down at Brian. "So it's fine, Brian. Ah'm fine. Can we please jus' stop talkin' about it?"

They stared at each other. Brian's fists were curled up into angry balls by his side and Leeland's breathing had taken on a hard edge. Then, the tension melted away from Brian and he took a step back. With a small nod of his head, he looked up. "Ok." He settled on quietly and Leeland smiled gently. "Thank you."

Victor watched the exchange between the two childhood friends and only then did it dawn on his just how close Leeland and Brian were. He couldn't see it at first. Brian was loud and obnoxious, cocky and just that little bit to closely related to a caveman. It didn't blend with Leeland's gentler nature and his inability to see to himself, rather than other people.

With the two of them together, it almost balanced them out. Victor blinked before giving a small shake of his head. He had wondered where Leeland had picked up his small streak of anger, whether it was from Frost or even Ramsey. It almost seemed as if it was there to counteract Brian's own aggression. Strangely enough, it worked.

"So." Victor cleared his throat, turning towards the triplets. "What happened earlier?"

The triplets gave him a once over before they turned their attention towards Leeland. The boy waited patiently.

"We shouldn't have left you." They started as one. "We wanted to give you something from your past but we didn't anticipate the reaction."

"Forge and David didn't help you at all, did they?" Leeland asked but it sounded as if he already knew the answer to his question. The girls shook their heads.

"'Ave I missed summat?" Brian asked and Leeland sighed with a shake of his head. He glanced over at Julian who was still watching them all intensely before looking over at Victor. He shrugged then, pushing his hands into his pockets.

"Next time, girls." He started, walking forward. "Don't." He smiled though, bringing a hand up to rub at the back of his head. "But how did you know?" He asked with a slight frown. "About Warlock?" He asked quietly, wary of the eyes upon him.

"What?" Asked Brian before Victor hushed him.

"We know a lot about you, Leeland Williams." They said raising their gaze to look up at the boy. Leeland swallowed. Their icy blue eyes were just like Ms. Frost's, but there was that familiarity to them. It was niggling it's way in the back of his mind but in a blink it was gone.

"You left that file out for Gleason to find." Said a voice behind them. Leeland glanced over his shoulder to see Laura. Her hands were resting in the pocket of her leather jacket and she was purposefully trying to ignore Julian's drunken smile.

"The wolf child's scent was covering your own, which I'll admit isn't to dissimilar from Frost's. Her office was, after all, where it was kept." She said apathetically turning to pluck the bottle from Julian's hand. "I also don't appreciate you blaming _this_ on myself." She frowned down at the little hellion who was far too tipsy to be bothered by the scolding. He beamed at her instead.

Leeland turned his puzzled expression back towards the girls. "If yah knew 'bout the file, why didn't yah tell me?" He asked. "Why'dcha leave it out for Nicky to find?"

"It didn't seem appropriate." Said the girl in the middle.  
"We're Ms. Frost's…" They trailed off with a frown and Leeland had to admit that it was the most animated he'd ever seen them.

"So you knew about Warlock from the file?" There was silence before the girls spoke again.

"We knew because Ms. Frost knew. She has known for a long time."

That made Leeland blink. He frowned, lips parting as if to say something but nothing would come to mind. All he could think was back to when she told him to stop looking. To let the matter of his parents be nothing more than wild speculation. All the while, she knew.

_She knew._

So what else did Emma Frost know?

"Uhh." Said Brian. "Any one else not followin' this?" He asked and Julian's hand came up into the air. The cold air was having a sobering effect on him.

Leeland turned, as if to march back towards the mansion.

"She's not there." The girl's said as Laura stepped forward, blocking Leeland's path.

"Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers are at a benefit with Stark." She said in that same deadpan tone. "If you want, the warlock could teleport us there and we could intereg-"

"No." Said Victor who marched over. His hand gently came to rest at Leeland's elbow. "We can't just go popping all over the State." He said, glancing up at Leeland who seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding his head.

"You're right. We can't. Ah bet the benefit's important as well." He replied, giving a weak smile at Victor who reassured him with a smile of his own. "Besides." He added, lacing his fingers with Victor's. "Ah wouldn't 'ave a clue what to say."

xxx

Emma pressed her lips to the rim of the wine glass. It was a chardonnay that looked expensive in the bottle but tasted flat on the tongue. She found her self sneering at it before discarding it on a passing waiters tray.

Glancing around, she pressed her hand to her elbow and watched the room of mostly humans. There were a few favoured meta-humans scattered amongst the richest and most influential of humans. Ever since she had publically revealed herself as a mutant, however, the influence that came with being a mere human had started to slip away. No longer was she, or her various companies first on the list to such gatherings.

It annoyed her more than she would allow herself to believe.

"You look deathly bored." Came Tony's voice in her ear, breath heavy with the tang of wine.

"I'm thinking, Stark, an ability you seem to be lacking."

"Are you still angry with me?" He asked, amusement in his voice and she turned to look at his smug face.

"Darling, if it wasn't beneath me then your nose would be firmly acquainted with my fist." That only seemed to amuse him more, but she was willing to let it go.

"I'll take that as a yes." Said Tony, turning to survey the room with her, taking another wine glass as the tray glided past them. He took what could only be described as a gulp, emptying half of the glass, before addressing her again. "I'm sorry it had to turn out like that, Emma." He spoke gently and Emma arched a slim eyebrow at him.

"You tried to take one of ours, I'm not feeling particularly charitable towards you at the moment."

"I know." He said with a frown. "Williams said as such. He seems to know you almost as much as I do."

"Perhaps better." Came Emma's reply. "And it's Williams now, not McCorby?"

Stark smirked. "His request. If he can't see the boy, at least call him by the same name. He cares about him a great deal."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well of course he does. He is the boy's father-" She held up a slim hand when Tony intended to speak over her. "And we shall leave it at that." She turned to give him her full attention. "What do you really want Stark?"

"My, it's almost as if you can read minds." Tony replied softly before finishing the wine and glancing around for another glass. "Do you know where the Warlock boy is Emma? His mother and step-father are attorney's and I'm hoping he's scuttled off back to them."

"You're not telling me everything, Tony."

Tony smiled, almost a grimace. "The Hayes want Leeland brought back to the UK. Something I don't think Sier Juniour has let on about. Either that or he doesn't know his mothers intentions."

"More that he hasn't been home long enough to hear about. I assume Williams doesn't know either."

Stark shook his head. "The boy's a mutant and no longer a minor, bad enough that _I_ couldn't get him from you."

"Do not underestimate Mrs. Hayes. She married a warlock and gave birth to one." She gave a small sigh and tapped her chin.

"Shall I forward you the details?" He asked and Emma gave a small incline of her head. "Does this mean we're friends again?" He added and Emma found herself smirking.

"Oh Tony. You'll have to grovel harder than that.

TBA ~

**End AN: **Hi. Sorry this took forever to update and isn't that impressive. Rough couple of months, we'll leave it at that**. **

Hello to the new readers I seem to have picked up along the way. (Where have you people been hiding?) Thanks for all the great and insightful reviews (that all came in bulk thanks to a FF delay). There was some real food for thought in there! I rather hope no one will be overly disappointed in the direction I'm taking BF.

I'm sorry for the disappointment but this is (w)angst heavy and yes his code name will be eventually Babel. You may all cringe now.

**gullivers travels: **The paradox will be addressed. There's also James Bradley delivering himself as well as Cable being sent off to the future to be raised by Rachel.

Hopefully I can get a better chapter out next time and it won't take forever as well.

Peace ~


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